This Place is a Prison
by vintage88
Summary: Things with the gang have changed for the worse, and a girl named Talia has made a promise that she know will hurt everyone. She's about to realize how hard life on the streets can be...
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to Venice_, Talia thought bitterly, _the city of peeling paintings, creepy sculptures and fat pigeons that crap on you during flight. _

The sixteen-year-old was sitting on a bench at the edge of a marketplace, banging her head against the ancient brick wall behind her. How long had she been sitting here for, with her long legs propped up on her large suitcase? She twisted a curly piece of her dark chocolate colored hair around her finger and pulled out of frustration; she kind of liked the tingling pain on her scalp. When her eyes started watering too much, she stopped and let go of her hair only to grab a folded letter out of her pocket. She had read it so many times she practically knew it off by heart, but she read it anyways.

_Talia_, it read,

_You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you this summer. One month in Venice is way too long! But hey, it's __**Venice**__! I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time. It's supposed to be amazing there and I'm so jealous of all the adventures you'll probably have… even if you just staying with your grandma who you've never met. Are you sure she doesn'__t speak English? If so__, I'm sure you'll have some funny stories to tell me when you get home. Take loads of pictures and send them to me__. Stay positive and you'll fall in love with the city just like everyone else does. _

_Love you loads, _

_Jillian_

The letter made Talia smile – Jillian was like the sister she never had. They were complete opposites but had been close ever since the second grade. Jillian was short and curvy with blonde hair and soft features. She was probably one of the kindest, most positive people Talia had ever met, which made it even stranger that they were so close because Talia definitely had a wicked side to her.

Talia herself was tall and skinny with pale skin and freckles across her nose. Her dark hair was large and curly and sometimes made her look like a poodle. Then her almond-shaped eyes, which were so dark you could hardly see the pupil, were coated with thick, brown eyelashes that always made it look like she was wearing too much mascara.

She desperately wanted to call Jillian and tell her that she may as well go home because her grandma had yet to show up, but of course, her cell didn't work in Venice. Letting out a tiny groan as she stuffed her cell back into her purse, Talia looked up to see a tiny woman walking towards her. She was taking impossibly small steps, but Talia didn't bother to get up.

The woman's face was shriveled by wrinkles and her breasts practically sagged to her waist. She grunted as she approached Talia. Ever so slowly, the woman lifted her hand and pointed at Talia's face.

"Talia?" she snapped loudly for her size and age.

"Er… yes." She then nodded, remember that the woman probably didn't speak English.

The woman than pointed at herself and muttered, "Grandma. Come."

Talia jumped to her feet and realized that her grandma hardly reached her shoulder she was so small. She grabbed the handle of her suitcase and began dragging it behind her as she followed the withered woman. The only sounds were the wheels noisily bouncing on the cobblestone streets and Grandma muttering to herself in Italian.

Talia rolled her dark eyes. This was even worse than she thought it would be.

* * *

"So is she nice?"

Talia was unpacking in her new room while talking to Jillian over the phone, which was wedged between her ear and shoulder as to leave her hands free to fold.

"Well she speaks even less English than I thought she would," she told Jillian, "I mean it took twenty minutes just to ask if I could use her phone, but no, she's not nice at all. She's a wrinkled prune who doesn't want me here as much as I don't want to be here."

"Oh Talia…" Jillian replied softly, "I'm sure things will improve. It's just your first day."

"I don't even want to be here!" Talia suddenly snapped. She hated whining, but she couldn't help it. "It's just so unfair for my parents to ship me off for a month without even letting me have a say. They want me to miss out on my valuable summer so I can do nothing in Venice? I just… I just hate it!"

"Have you talked to your parents since you arrived?" asked Jillian. Her smooth voice instantly calmed Talia down, but she couldn't help let out a sharp laugh.

"Of course I haven't called them. They're the last people I want to talk to right now. Maybe I won't call them for a whole week, and they'll be so worried and angry when I do call that they'll make me come home."

Jillian gasped. "Don't do that! You wouldn't really do that to them, would you Tal?"

Talia shook her head and chuckled to herself. "No Jillian, I won't really do that. I'll call them tomorrow."

There was a pause and Talia would hear Jillian yawning on the other end. "Hey what time is it in Venice anyways?"

"No idea," Talia replied, "but you sound tired. I'll let you go. I'll talk to you later, 'kay?"

"Okay. Love ya Tal."

"Love ya to, Jillian." And with that, Talia hung up the phone. She took a deep breath through her nose and let the air escape from her mouth. She glanced out the window to see the Venice sky had been replaced by a blanket of black. Talia really didn't have any idea what time it was, but she did know that she wasn't tired.

Hopping down stairs, Talia found Grandma sitting in the living room, watching some Italian soap opera. Feeling nervous around the old hag, she nervously knocked on the doorframe to get her attention. Grandma muttered in her language as she turned to face her granddaughter.

"I'm going for a walk," Talia said slowly, pronouncing each word carefully. She pointed to the door and then mimicked feet walking with her fingers. Grandma shrugged and yelled something loudly in Italian and waving her arms for Talia to go. This gave Talia the idea that she pretty much had the freedom to do whatever she wanted.

If only there was something she actually wanted to do…

* * *

It was impossible to lie to herself any longer. Venice truly was beautiful a beautiful city. Talia walked around aimlessly, crossing bridges over canals and walking down narrow, nameless streets. The buildings seemed to get older and older wherever she went, and it amazed her how they could still stand.

The lights that had been lighting up the sidewalk slowly vanished, and soon Talia was walking by the light of the moon. It didn't bother her that she was probably lost, because being lost in an unknown city was probably the most exciting thing that could happen to her. Besides, she had a pretty good memory. If she really tried she could probably remember her way back to Grandma's.

Eventually, Talia sat down at the edge of a canal, letting her long legs hang over the edge. It was a warm night, but an eerie feeling made her shudder. Nervously glancing over her shoulder, she reached into her pocket to pull out Jillian's letter once again. She hardly had a chance to open it though, because a shadow was appeared on top of her. As Talia turned around, the letter was suddenly snatched from her hands.

"Hey!" she yelled as she caught sight of a boy run away from her. In an instant, Talia was on her feet and chasing after him. "Hey!" she yelled again. That was _her_ letter. She needed it if she was ever going to survive a place as old and boring as Venice; it was to remind her of home.

Talia's long legs were an advantage for her, and she was catching up to the boy pretty fast. The thief took a sharp turn and she followed him right into an alleyway. She stopped at the mouth of the alleyway, breathing hard. The boy had been swallowed by shadows, making it impossible to see him, but Talia knew she had him trapped.

"You have nowhere to go," she tried to sound fierce, but a tiny wave of nervousness escaped her mouth as well, "stop hiding already." She paused. Only silence responded. "What do you want with a letter anyways?"

There was moment of hesitation before a boy suddenly emerged from the dark. He stopped a few feet away from Talia and she sucked in her breath at his appearance. He couldn't have been older than twelve, with dirty blonde hair and dark circles below his large eyes. His cheeks were hollow and his tattered pants were just holding on to his bony hips. His dirty feet were shoeless and in his left hand was the letter. The boy might have been cute-looking in a twelve-year-old way if he weren't staring at Talia so harshly.

"I thought it was money or something." He said quietly.

Talia hesitated before asking, "Can I have it back please? It's kind of important to me and is really no use to you."

Taking a deep breath, the boy took a few more steps towards Talia and handed her back the letter. She could only whisper thanks as the boy dropped his eyes. For a terrifying moment, Talia thought he would burst into tears.

"What does the letter say?" he finally asked, "I could only read some of it?"

Talia nodded slowly as she glanced down at the letter and read it aloud. She probably could have read it off by heart, but she needed an excuse to look away from the boy. When she was done, Talia folded the letter slowly into her pocket.

Another long silence followed, and Talia couldn't help but wonder why the boy didn't run off. She was wondering if maybe it had to do with the fact that she was standing at the mouth of the alleyway, and he was waiting for her to move aside. If this was the case, Talia decided she didn't want to move.

"I'm Talia," she finally said, "what's your name?"

"Bo." He kept his eyes to the ground as he spoke.

"Bo…" she repeated his name slowly, "Where do you live, Bo?"

At this, Bo lifted his head up to look at Talia. His face seemed to lighten slightly, as if being struck by an idea. "I can show you," he told her. With that, he walked right past Talia, letting his arm lightly brush her own and almost with a magnetic pull, Talia began to follow him.


	2. Chapter 2

Talia couldn't believe it when Bo stopped walking. He had taken her to a crumbling building with windows that were either boarded up or with broken glass. The bottom half of the door was missing as was the door handle. They walked inside where there was a staircase with a large gap in the centre of it. At the top of the staircase was a closed door with yellow light peeping through the bottom.

"We've had to move around a lot lately," Bo told her, "but this is by far the worst place we've ever stayed in."

"We?" Talia whispered, suddenly feeling very uneasy and pulling her sweater tighter around her body. What had she been thinking, following some kid off into the night? Bo didn't seem to hear her though and made his way up the stairs, leaping over the large hole. Talia followed.

They reached the door and Bo gave a light tap. "Hey," he spoke softly, eyes flashing, "I've got a guest."

The sound of scrambling came from the other side of the door while someone's voice came through wood of the door. "A guest?" a boy's voice asked, "You mean a real, _real_ guest?"

"Yup."

There was a long pause before the door opened, dim light from a candle spilling out onto the floor. Bo extended an arm into the direction of the room, smirking slightly. The candlelight flicked on his face, making his appearance suddenly very sinister-like. "Ladies first," he said and cocked his head towards the door.

Taking in a breath, Talia gave a nod as she took a few steps into the room. She had hardly walked through the door when someone gripped both of her arms tightly behind her back. She was about to scream but someone else's grimy hand covered her mouth and together, the two figures pulled her harshly to a chair. With amazing speed, they tied her to the chair and wrapped a cloth over her eyes.

"Bo!" she screamed, but the hand once again covered her mouth.

"Stop that," the voice of a girl snapped, "we're not going to hurt you if you shut up." Talia immediately snapped her mouth closed. "Search her," the girl than said.

At once, two pairs of hands were on Talia. They weren't do touching her inappropriately exactly, but Talia let out a small whimper as they searched her pockets and took off her socks and shoes; probably to check those for money as well.

"What'd you get?" the girl asked after a minute.

"Her cell and a letter," the boy, whose voice had earlier been behind the door, said.

Bo finished for him. "But no money."

At this, the girl let out an exasperated sigh. "Do you have any money on you?" she asked Talia, "Any secret pockets in your jeans… cash in your bra? If you give it to us we'll let you go."

Talia was unable to answer though. She might have been able to if she could see who she was talking to, but faint blurs were all she could see through the cloth. She took in a trembling breath and waited for the girl to ask her again. Before this could happen though, someone's voice, a voice Talia hadn't heard yet, interrupted what was going on.

"What are you doing?"

There was surprised gasp from someone, followed by silence. In the next second, someone gently pulled the blind down from Talia's eyes. It was a boy, around the same age as Talia, with dark blonde hair and large, round eyes. His clothes and face were just as tattered and dirty as Bo's had been, but there was something in his face that was kinder than Bo's; something that gave her a glimmer of hope.

The boy stared at her for a moment, as if checking her for any bruises or cuts before asking, "Are you alright?"

After a pause, Talia nodded. She then glanced behind the boy to see Bo watching him. With him was a girl who looked the same age as her with her long brown hair tied back in a braid. Then there was another boy who looked slightly younger with red hair and a face covered in freckles. His mouth was hanging open slightly, showing Talia the gap between his large front teeth. Startled by how frail and exhausted they all looked, she dropped her eyes to her lap, only to realize that they had tied her to the chair with jump ropes.

The boy who had taken the cloth off of Talia's eyes spun around and glared at them. "What the hell were you doing? Who brought her here?"

"Bo did," the red head quickly said.

Bo's face darkened. "Thanks a lot, Riccio," he muttered before lifting his head up, eyes flashing fiercely. "Fine, so I brought her here. What are you going to do Prosper? Kick me out onto the streets? Oh wait; we already do live on the streets."

Prosper shook his head in disbelief. "Stop it, would you? I just can't believe you would stoop so low as to kidnap someone!"

"I didn't kidnap her! It was her choice to come with me."

"And was it her choice to tie herself to a chair?" Prosper snapped. The two boys were glaring ferociously at each other, and the longer Talia watched them, the more she realized that they had to be brothers. The girl suddenly stepped between them.

"That's enough," she said and turned to Prosper, "Look, we're sorry okay? It wasn't right."

"Try explaining that to Bo would you?" Prosper said, still glaring at his brother. With a roll of his eyes, Bo suddenly turned sharply on his heel and stormed out of the small room. The second he was gone, Prosper's face suddenly looked like he regretted everything he had said.

"Bo!" he called after him, but there was no response. It looked like he was about to take a step forwards, but Riccio suddenly stopped him.

"It's okay," he told Prosper, "I'll go get him." Prosper nodded a thanks, but to Talia it almost looked as if Riccio was relieved to have an excuse to leave. That left Talia with Prosper and the other girl.

With a sigh, Prosper turned towards the girl with braided hair. "Hornet…" he said slowly.

"Prosper, I'm so sorry." She whispered, "I don't know what came over any of us. Bo said he had brought a guest here and Riccio and I both knew what he was thinking. We're so desperate for money Prosper… and we never would have hurt her, I swear." Hornet looked as if she was about to burst into tears as her large, brown and glassy eyes stared intently at Prosper.

Prosper didn't answer. Instead, he sat against the wall, staring blankly at the candles scattered across the room. He acted as if he hadn't heard it… or maybe he really hadn't heard her.

Hornet swallowed hard and approached Talia. She crouched down to untie Talia from the chair. It was a relief to have her wrists free again, and Talia rubbed where the ropes had been digging into her skin. Hornet stood up to her full height and stared down at Talia in the chair. "You can go," she told her simply before turning away.

Talia stood up, but didn't bolt for the door like she thought she would. "What about Bo?" she found herself asking instead. Both Hornet and Prosper look at her, very surprised that she was speaking. Talia tried again.

"I mean he just ran off… shouldn't we go and see if he's okay?"

After a moment, Prosper stood up and walked next to Hornet. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Talia…"

"Okay Talia, why do you care what happens to Bo?"

She swallowed. "I mean he's just a kid. How old is he, twelve or something? He shouldn't really be wandering the streets this late."

At this, Hornet let out a harsh laugh. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're all pretty capable of taking care of ourselves. He'll be fine and will be back by morning at the latest."

Talia hinted that this was the time where she was supposed to walk out the door, but something held her where she was. So instead of heading towards the door, she slowly began walking around the room. Prosper and Hornet's eyes were glued on her as she gazed around the small room.

"So you're all thieves I'm guessing," Talia spoke slowly, "how long have you been living like this for?"

"A while…" Hornet answered slowly.

"So I'm guessing you pretty much know what you're doing all the time then. Stealing wise, I mean."

Hornet straightened up slightly at this. "Well of course we do. It's our life."

Prosper watched Talia closely as she slowly made her way around the room, asking general questions about thievery and Hornet answering all of them. He found he liked watching her, not because she was pretty exactly, but because she was interesting looking; her long and awkward body swayed slowly as she moved and her curly hair had to seem a life of its own.

"And for someone like me," Talia continued, "who you've pretty much kidnapped, you're just going to let them me go?"

Hornet tilted her chin up. "And why wouldn't we?"

Talia shrugged. "I don't know. I mean there's always the chance that I could run to the police and tell them about a gang of four thieves who tried to rob me."

There was a long pause as Hornet and Prosper took in Talia's words. At last, Prosper asked, "Are you telling us we should keep you here for the night?"

Snapping her head at him, Talia's mouth curled up into what the gang would soon learn was her infamous smirk. Talia hoped that her dark eyes were giving some sort of sign that that was what she was saying. Spending a night with a group of thieves sounded like the most amazing thing ever to her. Besides, they were more or less the same age as her and didn't seem too bad, and she was pretty sure her Grandma wouldn't care – or know, for that matter – if she didn't come home that night.

"No!" Hornet suddenly said as she saw the way Prosper and Talia were staring at each other, "No, you're not staying here. Stop taking your life of having a home for granted and get out of here."

"But it makes sense," Prosper suddenly said, still staring at Talia, "we don't want her to tell the police on us."

"Why would she tell us though?" Hornet asked in disbelief. At last, Prosper turned to look at her which seemed to calm her down slightly.

"I'm not sure," he responded, "but we should keep an eye on her. Life is hard enough without having to spend all our time running from cops. She'll stay for the night, just so we can watch her." When Hornet didn't agree immediately, Prosper took both of her hands into his own and locked his eyes with her own. "Just for one night," he said.

At last Hornet gave in and she turned to Talia. "You'll stay in that corner and won't move until we tell you to," Hornet said sternly.

Nodding her head, Talia moved to the corner without complaint. She curled up into a ball and watched Hornet and Prosper across the room. They were sitting together and talking in voices so soft she couldn't make out anything they were saying. She continued to watch them for some time, letting the flickering candle light put her into a daze. In no time, she began to feel how heavy her thick eyelashes actually were, and she let her eyes close and take her into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

About an hour after the candle was blown out, Riccio quietly returned back to the room and fell asleep almost instantly after placing his head on the wooden floor. Talia was asleep in the corner and Hornet had curled up and fallen asleep on Prosper. Prosper himself though, was wide awake.

It wasn't until early in the morning, when Bo quietly sneaked into the room, that Prosper allowed himself to at last fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the light that woke Talia up the next day. It was just able to squeeze through the cracks of the boards on the windows and ended up travelling in a straight line directly onto her face. The warmth made her eyes flutter open, and it took her a moment to remember what happened last night. Back stiff from sleeping in a corner, she slowly sat up.

"What time is it?" she mumbled as she raised her arms over her head to stretch.

As she gazed around the room though, she realized it was empty. There were no signs of anyone having been there – the chair and candles had been stashed away somewhere. Talia figured it was either so the items wouldn't be stolen in case of intruders or to make sure that if the cops came in during the day, there would be so signs of them having been there.

Slowly, Talia rose to her feet and brushed the dust off her legs. She felt slightly disappointed that no one had bothered to wake her up, and wasn't sure if, as a prisoner, she was meant to stay put or not. Staying as a captive had been her idea after all, but at the time she hadn't realized that it could have meant spending the whole day indoors by herself. She had only suggested it so she could have something exciting to do, after all!

A few feet away, Talia noticed her cell phone on the ground. Being held below it was her letter, neatly folded in half. She bent down to pick them up, and realized that someone had written a note on the back of the letter. It was written in large, neat cursive that made it look like whoever had written it had made an effort out of it.

_Talia,_ she read,

_Sorry we had to leave so early, but a thief needs all day to work to make sure they… uh, 'find' enough to get by. Not that I'm expecting you to care, but we'll most likely be out all day, although at least one person is always back by dark. _

_Prosper_

_P.S. __Bo made it back early this morning okay. Just thought you should know. _

Folding the letter and gingerly slipping it into her pocket, Talia left the thieves home, a tiny smirk playing with her thin lips. The smirk stayed put the whole way home, making most she passed in Venice stare at her for just that second longer. It wasn't a snide or unpleasant smirk that made people fearful of her. No, instead it made it look like she knew something everyone else didn't. And anyone who looked at her for that second longer immediately wished that knew what was going on in that head of hers, beneath her wild and crazy hair.

* * *

Grandma didn't seem to care that much when Talia walked through the door in the same outfit she had left in. The old woman just pointed and grunted to the kitchen, and Talia guessed she meant that she could help herself to food when wanted. After taking a quick shower, for Talia was too impatient to spend long on anything, and wearing clean clothes, she picked up the phone in her room to call Jillian. After a few rings, her friend picked up.

"Hello?"

The word had hardly left Jillian's mouth before Talia burst, "Jillian you'll never believe what I did. The letter you gave me was stolen so I ran after the thief and then he practically kidnapped me with all his thief friends and they let me spend the night at their house, which is some old deserted building by the way, and held me captive until the morning when I guess I escaped even though I didn't really want to but they had all left."

There was a long pause on the other end, leaving Talia hanging. At last, Jillian asked unsurely, "Is this Talia?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course it's Talia, calling all the way from Venice!" Another pause followed and although it irritated Talia, she gave her best friend some time.

"Okay," Jillian said slowly at last, "you were speaking really fast and bunching your words all into one long sentence… did I hear correctly that you were _kidnapped_?"

"Yeah, isn't that exciting?"

"Exciting? Talia, I'm about to have a heart attack? Are you hurt? What did they do to you? I don't understand why you find this so amusing."

"Don't worry, I'll explain it all –"

Jillian suddenly cut Talia off. "Don't," she said, her voice in a whisper, "my parents don't want me talking to you on the phone. You're all the way in Venice, Tal! They're going to make me pay for the phone bill probably. Can't you email me or something?"

Talia thought for a moment, trying to remember if any of the rooms in her Grandma's house had a computer. "I'll probably be able to find an internet café somewhere."

"Sounds good, and I hope you don't mind but I really have to get off the phone."

"Oh that's fine." Talia said, but she was sure Jillian could hear the disappointment in her voice. She had looked forward to actually telling Jillian herself and being able to hear her response. It was hard to tell the emotion in someone's voice in an email unless it was all in caps lock, but that just gets irritating to read fast.

"I'll look forward to read about your adventure," Jillian reassured her, "and will be having a panic attack as I worry about what you've gotten yourself into."

Talia let out a small laugh. "I'll email you as soon as I can. I love and miss you loads, Jillian."

"And you know I love and miss you even more. I'll reply to your email as soon as I get it. Bye Talia!"

_Click!_

Talia let out a sigh, replaying their conversation over in her head. She was still holding the phone in her hand when it started to ring. Hesitating because she didn't speak Italian, she picked it up after a few rings.

"Uh… hello?"

"Talia, is that you?"

"Dad?"

"Why didn't you call us yesterday?" he suddenly snapped, "Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I have been?"

Rolling her eyes, Talia flopped onto her bed. "Oh yeah, everything's great. Thanks for asking dad."

"Don't be sarcastic with me young lady. I'm very serious when we say we were worrying. Your mom was almost in tears."

Although Talia knew this was highly unlikely, she was more of a person to argue face to face than over the phone, and decided to give in. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, "I was just busy unpacking and having a deep and serious conversation with Grandma about the meaning of life."

There was a pause before her dad asked slowly, "With Grandma… are you serious?"

"No dad! You know she speaks hardly any English at all; she just points and grunts a lot of the time."

At last her dad chuckled. "I know she may seem a little harsh at first, but she is my mother, so trust me when I say she truly is an amazing and intelligent woman. You'll never meet anyone like her."

"Sure dad…"

"Really, give it some time. You'll come to find that there is a purpose to this adventure we've asked you to do."

"I think you mean you _forced_ me to do," Talia grumbled as she recalled the countless arguments she and her parents had had about this trip.

"Talia…" her dad said in his warning tone, and she knew that she was about to get a talking to about proper manners. Luckily, Jillian had given her a brilliant to avoid this situation.

"Look dad," Talia said quickly, "you do realize that you're calling me in Venice. That's going to make the phone bill huge! So I'll let you go.

"Talia, wait –"

"It's okay dad. I'll email you or something. Bye, love you!"

With that she slammed the phone down. She continued to lie on the bed, arms over her head and fiddling with the ends of strands of her hair. She grinned to herself for just being able to stop talking to her dad like that – it was amazing. It was here that Talia suddenly realized the brilliant truth. She was in Venice, practically alone because a muttering non-English speaking Grandma didn't count. She could do whatever she wanted. She was free.

Getting up from her bed and grabbing her purse, Talia started to head out of the house. She was going to find an internet café. And then, maybe after, she might start looking for those thieves again. Or, she found herself thinking, hopefully they'd be looking for her.

* * *

Prosper leaned up against a wall and stared through the people who walked by in the marketplace. He was watching only his brother, Bo, as his hand slipped quickly into the pocket of a careless tourist and pulled out a whole wallet. Bo was by far the best thief of the gang. A satisfied grin spread across the young boy's face as he stared at the fat wallet in his hands, but it vanished the second he laid eyes on his older brother. They stared at each other for a long moment before Bo approached him.

"Jealous?" Bo sneered as he waved the wallet in front of Prosper's face.

Prosper shrugged. "Probably," he replied flatly, "but not until I see what's inside it."

"Who cares?" Bo's eyes bulged as he looked at the wallet again, "Have you seen the size of this thing?"

"Just open it."

With an irritated sigh, Bo opened up the wallet, but not before wavering on the spot for a second. His face fell the second he realized that the careless tourist hadn't been so careless. The wallet was a fake, filled with only flyers of museums, restaurants and free exhibits across Venice. Bo's throat tightened and he had to focus very hard not to cry.

"Look, it's okay –" Prosper began, but Bo immediately cut him off.

"What do you want?" he snapped at Prosper, "Why do you do this to me and have to humiliate me all the time?" His eyes were watering now and Prosper's usually calm face was filled with worry.

"I didn't do it to humiliate you," Prosper quickly said, "and besides, you're the best thief out of all of us. You'll get another wallet easily."

"Just shut up! I hate this! I hate living like this Prosper. I never should have followed you. I should have just let you run away by yourself to die."

"Bo, please!" Prosper cried, suddenly terrified, but Bo continued on his rant.

"I'm always hungry, I'm always dirty, I'm always cold and it's the middle of summer." Bo was crying now, and was causing a scene for those passing by, "You're my brother and you do nothing about it because you can't. You can't do anything Prosper. I never should have followed you. I hate you for it, I hate you."

Then, just like that, Prosper couldn't move. He could hardly breathe. Bo's words were like being punched in the stomach. Everything around him was silent and blurred, his brain only focusing on Bo who had crouched down to the ground to cry. _I hate you… _Prosper wanted to hug him, wanted to tell him it would be okay, wanted to do anything that a brother would have done, but couldn't. And then Hornet appeared out of nowhere, like she always did, to save them.

Crouching onto the ground herself, Hornet wrapped her long, thin arms around the small boy. Holding him tightly, she whispered reassuring words into his ear until Bo's heavy sobs had lightened. In no time, time, he had stopped crying, allowing himself to be cradled in Hornet's arms. Prosper could only watch.

"Hey guys, I'm glad I found you. I got us some breakfast!" Riccio, who was holding out a bag of freshly made bread and smiling as he munched on a slice, froze as he saw the scene he had walked into. Frowning slightly, he asked, "What'd I miss?"

Hornet's head snapped up and she made a face at Riccio to shut up. Her large brown eyes then turned to Prosper. _What happened, _he knew they were asking, but he couldn't respond in any way. The longer he stared at Hornet and Bo, the angrier he became. He could feel the jealousy rising and then in a heartbeat, he stormed away.

"Wait," Riccio called after him, "don't you want your breakfast?"

Prosper ignored him and turned into the closest alleyway he could find. Walking briskly to the back, he crouched behind an old dumpster, ignoring its pungent smell. He could hear Riccio's footsteps coming after him, but he put his head in his hands so he wouldn't have to face him.

There was an awkward silence for a moment as Riccio watched him. "Don't you want some breakfast?" he finally asked again.

Sighing, Prosper looked up. "I'm not hungry," he said, but Riccio could see right through the lie. Opening the bag, he pulled out a slice of bread and shoved it towards Prosper's face.

"Come on," he said, grinning as he waved it in his face, "you know you want it. You know you want this delicious, fresh bread that I worked hard to steal from the bakery this morning. Mmm, smell that fresh… er, bread… smell…"

Prosper let a small laugh escape him at Riccio's pathetic wording. Nonetheless, he took the piece of bread and bit a large piece out of it. With a nod, Riccio sat down next to him and continued eating his own slice. Riccio didn't say anything to Prosper – he didn't think he needed to. He thought that all Prosper needed was a piece of bread, but he was wrong.

Prosper wanted, no, needed to be told that it was going to be okay. He wanted someone to tell him they'd be okay, that they'd get through this tough time in their lives. He needed someone to hug him and reassure him by whispering into his ear, but the only person who would do that was Hornet. And now she was busy hugging the youngest of the group at the side of the marketplace.

Hornet and Bo could probably sit there for hours at the side of the marketplace, not moving from their spot. Adults and tourists would pass, but the two children would be ignored. They would continue to go unnoticed, just like they had every day of their lives since Ida had left them.

* * *

**A/N – but where's ****Mosca****? Don't ****worry,**** he plays a very important role that has affected all of the gang's lives. He'll be mentioned sooner or later… ;) **


	4. Chapter 4

After Talia had sent off an email to Jillian, she wasn't sure how to spend the rest of her day. Those thieves she had met wouldn't be back until dark, like Prosper had said, and even then there was a chance most of them would be out on the streets. When she had started to walk aimlessly around Venice, Talia had kind of hoped she might see Prosper or Riccio or even Hornet… although Bo she was a little unsure about; he had pretty much broken the trust bond between them right from the start. Talia soon learned that finding any of them would be highly unlikely on account of the bustling streets.

Venice was probably one of the most crowded cities full of tourists Talia had ever seen. People walking around with large cameras hanging from their neck, backpacks on their back and white running shoes (the shoe made for travelling, as all tour guide books said) were everywhere. It got quite overwhelming, walking alone through the crowds, and not to mention boring. Being free was fun and all, but not really when you were all alone.

The sun slowly lowered in the sky and Talia had to stop to sit on the steps outside of some large, gothic cathedral. The cathedral was quite beautiful; tall and dark with large stained glass windows and stone winged-lions on the top of it, but Talia was too tired to notice. Despite her height, she found she didn't need much food to survive on. She could sometimes go a whole day without eating and feel fine, but now she realized she had hardly eaten anything the day before as well as today, and could feel a small pain in the pit of her stomach.

_Hunger…_

Since it took a lot for Talia to get hungry, it didn't happen very often, but when it did, she hated it. She couldn't stand that irritating feeling in her stomach. Therefore, despite her aching feet, she trudged until she had found somewhere cheap looking.

Talia hesitated and stared at where she had walked to. It was a bar. Although she wasn't sure of the drinking age in Italy, she was pretty sure her height would help her, and besides, _she was so hungry!!_ Shoulders back, Talia walked into the dimly lit bar and took a seat on a tall stool. It was early, so she was one of the few people in the bar which made her stand out even more.

"You a tourist?" the bartender asked as he cleaned out a large glass for Talia.

"Yeah… do you have anything to eat?"

Looking amused, the bartender replied, "I might have some chips if you'd like."

"Those could work," Talia said quickly, and then added, "and a beer… on tap." She had heard her dad use that term before and thought it would add to the whole age thing she was trying to pull off.

The bartender nodded and got Talia's order together while she pulled out some cash. As he filled up a large glass of beer, he looked towards Talia, eyeing her carefully. "So how old are you anyways?" Pause. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

After another pause, Talia sighed and said, "Sixteen."

"If you weren't so nervous you would probably be able to pull it off," the bartender told her, "because you don't look like you're sixteen at all."

Talia shrugged, and after tossing another chip into her mouth, took a large sip of beer just to show the bartender she wasn't scared of being here alone. Besides, she was more excited if anything.

"I'm Marco," he suddenly said, leaning forwards, "and who are you."

"Talia…" she leaned back slightly, smelling his smoky breath.

"How do you like Venice?"

Hearing this, Talia suddenly sat up, knowing exactly what she would say. "Actually," she said proudly, "I think Venice is one of the oldest most boring places to be when you're here alone. But the thieves I've met here have definitely improved my trip.

Marco arched an eyebrow at her. "Thieves," he said the word slowly to prove she didn't believe him.

Talia nodded.

"Well," Marco said slowly, "if you ever do meet these thieves again, get them to tell you about the magical story of the Thief Lord and his merry-go-round."

Talia's dark eyes stared at Marco for a long second before her pale face suddenly reddened. He was mocking her, pretty much telling her he didn't believe a word she said. How could she have been so stupid to tell some stranger about her adventure that no one would ever believe? She narrowed her eyes, angry at Marco for making her feel like such a child.

"Just because I'm underage," she hissed, "doesn't mean I'm some kid who believes in fairytales, okay?"

Marco leaned back slightly, his hazel eyes flashing in that amused way. "Well someone's getting angry over there, isn't she? It looks an awful like you're about to throw a temper tantrum."

"Oh shut up!" Talia snapped, because now this guy was _really_ pissing her off, "I don't act like a kid."

"Then show me."

At this, Talia froze. "What?"

Marco's fat lips curled up into a wicked smirk. "If you're not a child," he lowered his voice, "then show me what you've got. We'll go upstairs to my room, and there I'll be able to tell if you're a real child or not."

Suddenly realizing where this was go, Talia's eyes widened in fear. Snatching her purse from off the bar, she jumped of the stool and ran as fast as she could to the door. Bursting outside, she realized the sun had set and the streets of Venice were empty. She had to get home, she had to get home… but where was home? Just as she was about to sprint off into any direction, a hand suddenly grabbed her arm and flung her towards the side of a building. Her head smacked hard against the brick, but she couldn't cry out in pain because Marco's mouth was suddenly on hers.

Squealing, Talia tried to push him away, but it was useless. His body was smashing hers against the brick and he was using one of his hands to hold her arm back from hitting him. His other hand, she suddenly realized, was trying to unbutton her jeans.

"Get off of me!" Talia tried to yell, but he had shoved his tongue in her mouth so far that she felt she might choke. Then, to Talia's fear, Marco let out a satisfied grunt as he finally got her button undone. She was screaming now, and squirming against the wall trying to shake him off, trying to do anything to get him to stop.

_Crack_

Marco suddenly froze. His eyes were huge and he was staring right through Talia. And then, eyes fluttering as they closed, he fell on top of her as he passed out. Talia screamed and squirmed out from between the wall and the bartender.

"Are you okay?"

Talia jumped at the sound of a voice, her heart pounding. She snapped around to a girl standing right behind her. In her hand was the broken wine bottle she had used to smack Marco on the head with. The girl seemed to be drowning in her clothes – the jeans were too baggy on her and were being held up with a piece of string around her waist, and her large sweater was sagging off of her bony shoulders. Her large brown eyes were wide with concern and her long, brown hair was tied back into a braid.

"Hornet?"

Just like that, Hornet's expression changed to a furious one. "What the hell do you think you were doing?" she snapped, "Why the fuck would you go into a bar by yourself in a city you know nothing about? I mean why this bar, why _this_ bar?"

"I'm sorry…" Talia whispered, although she wasn't sure why she was apologizing. Her whole body was trembling as if it were a cold night in December, not a night in July. "I'm sorry," she whispered again.

It was hear that Hornet suddenly approached Talia and hugged her, and as strange as it was since Talia hardly knew her, she let herself hug Hornet back. "No, I'm sorry," Hornet mumbled, "I should have yelled at you. I was just scared." Hornet pulled away and looked at Talia in the eye. She was pretty tall herself, although Talia was still taller.

Taking in a deep breath, Hornet said, "The same thing happened to me about seven months ago when I was here, only I wasn't as lucky. There was no person standing in the shadows to help me. So I just cried through the whole thing until he was done with me and tossed me back out onto the streets." Hornet's large eyes were wide and glassy, but she wouldn't let herself cry. "I was so… angry at myself for letting it happen that I didn't return back to the gang for three days, and even when I did, I couldn't tell them. So please Talia, please don't tell them what happened to me. You can't let them know, okay?"

Talia could only nod. She wasn't sure what to say to comfort Hornet, and so she just stood there. Hornet closed her eyes to control herself, letting on tear run down her face. Quickly wiping it away, she turned around and started walking away. "Come on," she told Talia, "you can come with me if you want."

"Okay," Talia responded, but she was so stunned with the story Hornet had just told her, that she could hardly speak. She followed Hornet close behind, the two of them saying nothing as they ran in and out of the shadows. As they did, Talia couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her if Hornet hadn't saved her, what would have happened if Marco had gotten her. Would she have kept it a secret, would she feel ashamed of herself?

But mostly, she wondered if she would have cried like Hornet had, or if she would have bottled up her tears like she always did.

**A/N – so now we know a little bit of Hornet's story, but also, s****chool's started, as you know, and it is going to be tough for these next few months. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but school is going to slow me down. Hope you don't mind!!**


	5. Chapter 5

It took longer to reach where the thieves lived than Talia remembered. How far had she walked away from her Grandma's house without realizing it? She stayed close behind Hornet, careful not to bump into her when she stopped suddenly. The two of them ran down the narrow, empty streets, staying hidden in the thick shadows. After the scare they had just encountered with Marco, the two girls were both relieved to reach their home. Together, they quietly jumped over the whole in the stairs with Hornet giving a light tap on the door before entering. Three pairs of eyes were on Talia in a flash.

"You're back!" Prosper got to his feet when he made sure he hadn't been imagining Talia standing there. His eyes were smiling and his face was beaming a little too brightly for Hornet and she quickly went to her corner of the room.

"I'm back." Talia replied breathlessly, smirking. As she did, she realized that all three boys had shifted their eyes to the floor awkwardly. Prosper had gone red in the cheeks and Riccio was trying not to giggle. Bo just shook his head.

"What?" Talia asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

Hornet got Talia's attention by clearing her throat, although her eyes were averted like the boys when she spoke. "You're… erm, fly is undone."

Glancing down, Talia realized that Hornet spoke the truth. She had yet to button her jeans back up after the Marco incident. Her jeans were sliding off her hips and the fly was wide open, clearly showing her blue underwear. "Oh," mumbled Talia as she quickly did her jeans back up. It was all she could say.

There was an awkward pause as the boys slowly brought their heads back up and eyed each other. Hornet just watched them from her corner with her arms crossed, an almost-wicked smirk playing with her lips. Sucking in her breath, Talia took a step further into the room.

"I don't usually walk around like that," she explained, "with my jeans falling off because I haven't done them up. There was… well, something happened that you should probably know about." She paused before deciding to just be blunt with them. "I was raped. Well, almost raped, but Hornet saved me."

"What?" Prosper's mouth dropped open, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks to Hornet. It was just gross and I still have the taste of the guy's tongue in my mouth."

"Well maybe you'd like to wash it out with some toothpaste." Bo suddenly said, "Perhaps some mouthwash as well, and how about some dental floss?"

Bo was staring intently at Talia through the blonde locks of his hair that fell in front of his dull eyes. He was smiling at her, but something about the look on his face made her very uneasy. Whenever someone made Talia embarrassed or sarcastic to her, she would usually snap a remark back to them to shut them up, only there was something about Bo that stopped her. Maybe it was the fact that despite his being cruel to her, he was still only some scrawny, homeless kid.

After a while, Riccio asked uncertainly, "Do we really have toothpaste?"

Hornet rolled her eyes, but before anyone could answer Riccio's obvious question, Prosper snapped. "What's wrong with you?" he yelled at Bo, "Why do you have to treat everyone like they're some stupid piece of shit?"

"Prosper…" Hornet took a step towards him.

Bo jumped to his feet. "Well she acts like she's surprised that at what happened to her," he pointed at Talia, "because she had no idea what she's getting into when she comes down into these bad parts of Venice. Well welcome to Venice Talia, the sinking city full of runaways who only came here because they thought there was something magical about this place."

"But Venice is magical." Riccio suddenly said, "We all know what happened to –"

"Don't go there," Prosper and Bo cut off Riccio instantly. The two brothers paused as they eyed each other, slightly amused that they had said the same thing at the same time. "Hey," Prosper said slowly, "for once we agree on something."

Bo's face darkened in a flash. "That's because we know what our life is really like," he pointed at Talia, "but she has no idea and no right to be here. She doesn't know what she's getting herself into-"

"Then help me!" Talia suddenly cried. She was getting so irritated with Prosper and Bo's constant bickering that she just had to say something to get them to shut up, and that just happened to be the only thing she could think of saying. Everyone stared at her, all so caught up in the argument that they had actually forgot she was with them.

"You think I know nothing," said Talia slowly, "and maybe that's true, but you can't keep saying that and do nothing if it pisses you off so much. Help me… teach me how to be a thief!"

"No!" Hornet and Bo burst at the same time.

"But why not?"

"Because you don't know what you're getting yourself into!" Hornet cried. Her brown eyes were filled with fury and fear, giving Talia the feel that even though Hornet had admitted to her about being raped, they weren't any closer as friends.

Talia took in a deep breath. This wasn't fair. Why couldn't they just accept her? They kept saying she knew nothing about their life, and it would just continue like that unless they let her stay with them. Talia didn't want to be a tourist anymore; she wanted to be a thief like the four standing in front of them.

She turned to Prosper. "Please," she begged, lowering her voice, "please let me stay here? I want to be one of you. You'll teach me, won't you Prosper?"

"Don't do it Prosper," Bo said quietly, staring up at his brother, "she doesn't even have a reason to be here."

Put on the spot, Prosper began to fiddle with the cuffs of his thin sweater. He shifted his eyes from Talia, with her dark and curious eyes, to Bo with his stern face trying to look older then he was. Bo was right, Talia didn't need to be here with them, but there was something about her… She hadn't ignored them like most people did; she didn't want to have nothing to do with them. There was just this feeling about Talia that made Prosper wonder if she could somehow _fix _the tension between the four thieves' lives. Maybe there was a reason why she was there…

"Fine," Prosper said quietly and mouths around him dropped open, "you can stay. I'll help you."

Bo lifted his head to the ceiling and groaned, or was it more of a whimper? "Why Prosper? This is so… stupid." He suddenly dropped his head and stormed out of the room, making Talia wonder if he was going to do that every time she showed up.

"I'll go after him." Riccio said slowly, but before he could rise to his feet, Prosper shook his head.

"No, I got it." Prosper said softly as he quickly followed his brother, looking on one in the eye. He closed the door quietly behind him, leaving Talia alone with Hornet and Riccio. Glancing up, she made eye contact with Hornet.

"Well you got what you want," Hornet said, rolling her eyes, "welcome to the life of thieves, Talia. Welcome to prison." She turned to Riccio, "Is it alright if I go for a walk?"

"I guess," he managed to respond. Hornet kept her eyes on him with concern, waiting until Riccio gave her a small smile, allowing her to leave. The door closed behind Hornet and Talia slid down the wall. Glancing over at Riccio, she realized that he had pulled out a small toy cat and was nervously pulling its long tail through his fingers. Talia's heart felt as if it was melting at the sight of young he suddenly looked.

"Riccio?" she asked softly. He lifted his eyes in her direction and she noticed they were as shiny as glass. "Should I just leave?" she asked him, "Would everyone be better off if I just left you all alone."

He stared at her for a long moment, still fiddling with the tail of the cat. "It's just weird," he said at last, his voice horse, "having you here with us. I mean you said you want to learn to be a thief while you're here, so as Hornet said, welcome to our life. But then you're gonna leave, you're gonna leave us Talia and go back to your normal life. You can even go back to your normal life whenever you want to because you have that choice… It's just weird to think that, is all."

Talia sucked in her breath. "So should I just leave? Would that make everyone happier?"

Riccio's eyes misted over even more. He swallowed before admitting, "I don't really know what makes any of them happy. I thought I did, but that was a while ago and they've all changed since –" he suddenly cut off and swallowed again. He suddenly covered his eyes with the stuffed cat, his narrow shoulders shaking slightly.

Hesitating, Talia slowly got up to her feet and walked over to him. She sat down, and after another pause, she put her arms around the boy. To her surprise, he let her and buried himself into her body, still holding the cat to his eyes. Talia didn't know how old Riccio was, but she knew he was older than Bo. It was weird to see how the two youngest boys responded to living like this – Bo tried to act older then he was while Riccio just wanted to be eight again.

"Can you help me," he asked, voice shaking, "to make them happy again? T-they fight so much and everything I s-say just makes it worse."

Talia bit her lower lip. "Sure Riccio," she whispered, "I'll help you. It's going to be okay."

"Promise?"

She bit harder. "I promise."

"Don't leave me with them. I'm scared I won't know what to do. Promise you won't leave me with them like this. Promise you won't leave until we're better."

"I promise Riccio."

And she bit harder. Talia bit so hard on her lip that she started to taste the flavor of salty blood, but she couldn't stop. She hugged Riccio tighter, the two of sitting alone in the dark. When the pain of biting her lip became too much, Talia unclenched her jaw. The second she did, something wet rolled down her face. Followed by another, and then another.

Then, she realized, she was crying. Talia was silent, letting tiny droplets of water roll down her face, because she didn't want Riccio to notice. She didn't want him to ask why she was crying, she didn't want him to realize the truth. Someday, she was going to have to leave.

Talia had lied, but only because she didn't know what else to say. She had lied to the boy in her arms, his face curried into the belly of a toy cat, and the thought of that broke her heart. She knew she was going to have to leave before any of them were ready.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N – I know, it's taken a long time to put up another chapter, but here it is. The last two have been kind of heavy, so I tried not to make this chapter too dark in hopes to lighten up the mood. ****xo**

The next morning wasn't as awkward as Talia worried it may be. Bo, Hornet and Riccio had all disappeared. Talia vaguely remembered being woken up by Riccio early in the morning as he tried to get up to leave. Through her sore, half-closed eyes, she had seen Riccio give her a small wave goodbye, and even though she was barely awake, Talia knew that the two of them had some sort of secret closeness that Talia had yet to feel with any of the other thieves quite yet.

The next time Talia awoke was by Prosper, who had roughly shaken her shoulders. "Talia!" he said loudly, his warm breath close to her face. Immediately she sat up.

"What?" she practically shouted back, "I'm awake!"

Prosper, who looked startled, froze and could only stare for a second. "Sorry," he apologized softly, "I thought you would be difficult to wake up."

Rubbing her eyes, Talia shook her head. "Nope," she mumbled, "I'm a light sleeper." She stretched her back and rubbed the rest of her face with her hands. As she did, she touched a sensitive spot on her lip and remembered biting it the night before. She now had a deep gash on the inside of her lip and she wished she had a mirror to see how swollen it was. Prosper didn't seem to notice it, or at least did a good job at ignoring the fact that it was there.

"So…" Talia slowly got up to her feet.

"I just need to make sure," Prosper's face was serious, "you're for real when you say you want to do this? You actually want to be a thief while you're here?"

Talia nodded and just like that, Prosper's face lightened. "Okay good," he told her, "but it's going to take some work. We're all going to have help train you because one mistake and you might end up in some orphanage as a teenage runaway. Even if they don't catch you right away, if someone sees your face and tells a cop, they'll keep an eye out for anyone with your description until they catch you. Venice doesn't want people like us here; we scare away tourists."

"You know a lot about this." Talia said as she repeated all of Prosper's words to make sure she wouldn't forget them.

"Well I have been doing this for a long time –"

"I know that," she quickly cut him off, "I just mean you know what happens if you get caught." She paused before asking unsurely, "Have any of you ever been… I mean has anyone been taken…"

"Taken by the cops? Taken to an orphanage?" Prosper finished for her. She nodded in reply and a small, full-of-different-emotions half-smile crawled onto Prosper's face. "You're quick," he said softly, "did you know that? You see things easily, or it's like you can see behind all of our grim faces or something. Are you psychic or something?"

Talia shuffled her feet uncertainly, not sure where he was going. "No…"

"I'm just kidding," Prosper told her although it didn't sound like he expected her to laugh. Taking in a breath, he continued, "But yes, one of us was caught."

"Did he… or she… escape?"

"Um… yeah, only you don't know him. His name was Mosca."

"Mosca," Talia repeated the name. She liked how it sounded, how it rolled off her tongue. It was an interesting name, she thought, soft and hard at the same time, and she instantly wondered what the boy must have been like. Why had no one mentioned her to her before? "Where's Mosca now if he escaped?"

"You know you ask a lot of questions," Prosper suddenly turned sharply on his heel so his back was to her, "and besides this whole thing was a while ago anyways."

Talia opened her mouth to ask more about this Mosca, but something in the air stopped her. They stood like that for a while; Prosper's back to Talia with his shoulders hunched up slightly, and Talia choking on her words, mouth hanging open.

"Let's go outside," Talia suddenly burst when she was sure the silence was about to eat her, "we could both use some sun."

Prosper nodded quickly and then the two of them walked outside. They were both relieved to have left the dusty room where they were all now living. The fresh air and sun seemed to lighten both of their moods.

"Okay," Prosper said as they both stopped at the edge of a market, "I've never really taught anyone how to steal before, so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do." He paused, thinking hard. "Well first off, it's probably best if you get into the mood of being a thief. You have to be focused and make sure your face won't give anything away."

"Got it," Talia said to make him know she was listening.

"So uh, close your eyes I guess. Now imagine some weird, oblivious tourist who busy taking pictures of everything. You're going to follow them for a bit, not being too obvious, looking for an open pocket or a purse or even a wallet in their back pocket. Then you're going to approach them and pretend to bump into them in the crowd while letting your hand gently slip in and out. Finally, without giving too much away, you'll walk – not run – walk away, hiding the wallet or whatever you grabbed without being obvious… did that help at all?"

"Yeah, it is," replied Talia with her eyes still closed, "I've got an idea of what to do now I guess."

"Good, now watch this."

"Wait, Prosper!!" Talia suddenly cried loudly.

"Yeah?"

"How can I see what you're doing? My eyes are supposed to be closed."

"Oh you can open them now."

"Okay."

When she did, she just caught Prosper disappear in the crowd. When she spotted him again, he looked bored and irritated that the crowd wasn't moving any fast. He then looked at Talia for a brief second to wink at her before going back to his bored expression, and here Talia realized that part of being a thief was acting. Keeping her dark eyes on him, she watched him for a while longer until she suddenly saw his hand snap out from his side, into a woman's purse, and come back out with a small wallet in his hand. It was so fast that Talia was sure that she would have missed it if she hadn't been watching him.

After another moment, Prosper returned to Talia's side. "Did you see it?" he asked, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Yes!" Talia squealed, "It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. She didn't even notice and no one else noticed and it was so fast… I want to do that!"

He grinned, face flushing slightly with embarrassment. "It'll take some time," he told her, "but how about now I treat you to some breakfast." He shook the wallet in his hands and added, "Just something small, of course, but we'll probably be able to get something to eat for a good price around here."

"Sounds great," Talia grinned back. As the two of them walked off from their spot, she was suddenly reminded of how hungry she was. Shaking her head, she told herself that she better get used to it if she was going to keep her promise for as long as she could.

* * *

The training process continued for another week. It was hard and frustrating because Talia wasn't able to get it very well. She wasn't very fast and after testing on Prosper and Hornet, they informed her that they could feel that she was trying to steal something from them. She continued to work her hardest though, and only stopped to sleep or to run to her Grandma's house just to let her know she was still alive (the old woman really didn't seem to mind that Talia was hardly ever home which was a relief for Talia). 

When Riccio suggested that she maybe try stealing from stores, Talia's nerves took over and she quickly said she wasn't ready to try that. Bo just laughed at her.

Prosper and Riccio were probably the most helpful with Talia. Determined to see her improve, Prosper spent most of his time with her until he felt he had to go and try to steal a wallet here or there to help with the gang. Riccio tried his best as well as he liked Talia, and although the two of them became close, he wasn't very good at the teaching component of it. A good example of this was when, one day, the two of them were standing in the alleyway and Riccio was trying to teach her how to scoop items out of a purse.

"See, you just have to curve your hand in and out like the letter 'S'," Riccio had told her.

"The letter 'S'? Riccio, I don't think my hand bends that way."

"Only it's not just your hand. It's also your arm, like the part from your elbow to your wrist."

"But that doesn't bend like the letter 'S' either!"

"Okay, maybe not the letter 'S', but how about 'U', like the swooping part of it?" Here, Riccio had then pressed his lips together and blew air out to make a _swoosh_ sound as he waved one arm in the air. Talia assumed that he was trying to prove that he could make the letter 'S'… or was it now the letter 'U'?... but all she could do was laugh at his sweet but failing attempt.

Hornet continued to be somewhat bitter to Talia. She wasn't eager to help her become a thief, which was a shame because she was at sometimes an even better teacher then Prosper, although a little harsher. One some days that Prosper had spent most of the day with Talia though, sometimes Hornet would come out of nowhere and say that she would take over.

"I think we're doing okay, actually." Prosper had said one time Hornet had approached them; "I'll just finish with her today."

"No," Hornet had replied firmly, "go and relax. I'll handle it from here on. Really, you need the rest."

"But I want to finish our lesson!"

When this happened, Talia couldn't help but wonder if Hornet only wanted to help her because she didn't want Prosper to spend all his time with her. Although this irritated Talia, she wanted to be approved by Hornet. Therefore she would usually tell Prosper that Hornet could teach her for a bit, even if it truly wasn't what any of the three of them wanted.

Then there was Bo. He was the youngest but Talia had heard stories from Prosper and knew he was the best out of all of them. Bo wanted nothing to do with helping Talia and would usually only speak to her to make fun of her. Although his remarks stung, Talia wouldn't let them stop her from trying to get him to help her. It wasn't just that she wanted Bo's approval, but she truly wanted him to teach her since he was the best and would have some good tips. Whenever she asked him though, he would just ignore her.

"He's not going to help you," Hornet had said one night when Talia was trying to get Bo to teach her the next morning, "so you may as well stop asking."

Talia just sighed and continued to ask from across the room. "Please Bo? It would only be for a few hours, I swear!"

Silence followed Talia's plea, but then suddenly, Bo's head was facing her. "You know," he said slowly and looking as if he was seriously considering it, "the longer you beg me to help you, the more pathetic you look!" He then turned his head away from Talia. Talia just groaned.

"It's okay," Prosper told her, "I'll work with you in the morning."

"No," Hornet suddenly said, "I will. You spent all day with her anyways."

"Hornet, I already told her I would work with her –"

"And I already said that I'll take over for the morning."

"But Hornet -"

"Shut up!"

Everyone looked to the corner of the room where Riccio was standing. They were all started, but no one looked as startled as Riccio himself did.

"I mean… can you stop fighting. Please. I will help Talia in the morning and then the two of you can fight over her in the afternoon…" Riccio glanced over at Talia nervously and she nodded at him to continue, "… but right now I would just like to get some sleep. Please."

After a pause, Hornet and Prosper both nodded. They were still stunned by Riccio and awkwardly dropped their eyes to the floor, pretending to be interested by the dust on the floor.

"Thank you." Riccio said quietly before quickly sitting back on the ground. Not believing his own actions, he buried his face into his hands for a second before glancing up at Talia with his toy cat covering his mouth. She smirked at him, letting him know how proud she was with him. He only nodded at her slightly, but Talia knew that beneath the toy cat was a large grin spread across his freckled face.


	7. Chapter 7

Time was moving much too fast for Talia, and before she knew it, two weeks had flown right by. The twenty-four hours in a day suddenly wasn't enough to fit in all the thief lessons and running back to Grandma's to let her know she was still alive with the occasional phone call or email back home. Talia also found herself feeling weaker than usual with lack of sleep and food, but she wouldn't dare complain. Sometimes the pain in her stomach would be so irritating that she would find herself lashing out at someone in the gang. It was here that she realized why they always seemed to be arguing.

The last two days had been constant rain, stopping tourists from going outside. That had been two days of nearly empty streets and no cash to steal. Stores remained unfilled, making it impossible to steal something as simple as a few apples. As Talia paid close attention to the lessons the thieves would teach her, she couldn't help but notice how dull their eyes were, and although no one would dare complain, they were all thinking the same thing.

They were starving.

Late in the evening, during the second day of rain, Talia was running back from a shabby internet café. Her chin was tucked down as cold water rolled down her face. She had hoped that the rain would let up for at least for a few minutes, but to her misfortune it started to rain even harder, the droplets of water feeling like sharp cuts on her skin.

Turning sharply, Talia stopped to take a small break from the rain by standing in the doorway of a deserted building. Shivering and breathing hard, she stared across the narrow cobblestone street and down an alleyway. The longer she stared into the dim alleyway, the more she began to understand what she was actually seeing.

There was a dumpster. Leaning over the side of the dumpster was a boy, too skinny for whatever age he was. He pulled himself up and Talia was suddenly staring at Bo as he carefully took a bite into the piece of old food he had in his hand. When Bo looked up to make direct eye contact with Talia, he didn't move. His face was set in stone, although he didn't look angry or ashamed of being caught. Bo just looked… lost. And if it hadn't been raining so hard Talia would have been sure he was crying.

* * *

"Talia?"

A small hand gingerly taped Talia on her shoulder and her thick eyelashes quickly opened, revealing her dark and intense eyes. When she realized who she was staring at, she sat up immediately.

"Bo?" Quickly glancing around the damp room, Talia realized that the rest of the gang was asleep, and if Prosper had been telling the truth when he said the rest of the thieves were heavy sleepers, then that mean she and Bo were practically alone. "Bo, are you okay?"

"Yeah." The boy sniffed and wiped his nose. He was catching a cold from being out in the rain. "I want to help you."

Talia's mouth dropped open. "Wait… help me to be a thief?"

"Do you want me to help you or not?"

"Oh, yes of course I do." Talia got up to her feet, her knees cracking as she did. "But why the sudden change of heart?"

Bo frowned slightly at her. "Change of heart? I haven't changed, if that's what you mean. I just think that you need to change because you suck and stealing and have no idea what you're doing most of the time."

Talia took in a deep to control the fury rising in her from Bo's attitude. _Just be grateful he wants to help you,_ she had to remind herself. "Then let's go." Talia told him, and together they the room.

"The rain's stopped." Bo explained, "I don't know for how long though because the clouds are still pretty dark. I'm guessing there will be a lot of people in the morning market to grab what they need before it starts up again though."

Talia stayed silent, but nodded as Bo talked. Everything he said made so much sense and was so obvious, but no one had ever thought of it before. The tips he gave her to pickpocket were simple, but clear and easy to understand all the same. Even when it took Talia a couple times to get the body movement right, he stayed calm, neither rolling his eyes in a mocking way nor groaning in frustration like she thought me might. It completely baffled Talia how his attitude had suddenly changed around her when he was teaching.

"So should I practice on you then?" Talia asked him, "Just like practicing by slipping my hand into your pocket or something?"

"No," Bo said simply, "and I know that's what Prosper and Hornet does but I don't think that really works. They're expecting you to steal something from them, so they're always going to feel that slight tug on the purse or their coat pocket or whatever. They could pretend not to feel it, but then how are they truly teaching you anything then?"

Talia stared intently at Bo as he looked up at her from his veil of blonde locks that covered his eyes. "What should I do then?"

He shrugged. "Try it for real. Go and pickpocket from someone in the market."

"Wait, you mean right now?"

"Yeah, right now."

Talia's throat tightened and a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. "Bo I can't do that. I'm not ready. I mean you said I suck at this after all."

Here, Bo dropped his eyes to the ground and shuffled his feet. "I know I said that, but… I only said that because… I don't know. I said it but I didn't really mean it. You're not good yet, but you're not _that_ bad." He finally looked up at her. "I mean there's your face which is just so… random!"

Talia flinched slightly at this remark, but she waited for Bo to continue.

"You may not know what you're doing," Bo explained, "but you don't show it at all. It's like your eyes are just so dark that they're impossible to read. Someone could feel you steal their wallet, but when they looked up in the crowd, they'd never know it was you if you kept it hidden because they wouldn't be able to see it on your face. They wouldn't be able to see any satisfied flicker in your eyes or an accomplished smirk, which how most of us thieves get caught. I guess I'm just trying to say that you're good at one of the most important parts of being a thief… and that's getting away."

There was a pause when he finished, a comfortable silence as Talia let Bo's works sink in. They both stared out into the crowd of bustling people, rushing to buy their fruit and vegetables while glancing up at the threatening sky. A lanky teenage boy with his old backpack sauntered by as he put a pair of headphones into his ears. An old man with a scraggily beard limped by as he smoked a cigarette. And then there was a large, stout woman who slowly walked past the two of them, a large purse slung over her shoulder.

"That one?" Talia asked quickly as she watched the stout woman slowly wobble off.

"That one," Bo agreed, "and don't worry. I'll be close by."

"Okay." She replied, but her voice was hardly a whisper as her feet began to lead her off into the direction of the woman. Once she had reached her target, Talia tried to look casual and pretend to be interested in her surroundings, but she was scared to take her eyes off of the large purse. After a few more seconds, Talia approached the woman. She lightly bumped into her, pretending to be pushed by the crowd. Then, ever so quickly, her hand slipped into the woman's purse, grabbed onto the first object it touched, and snapped out.

Her whole body was shaking, Talia was so nervous, but she kept walking until she felt that she was safe to return to Bo's side. The boy stared at her hopefully, and Talia stuck out her hand. She wasn't holding a wallet like she had hoped, but instead, a contained that held a pair of reading glasses.

"Oh…" It was all Talia could say when she realized she had stolen something completely useless. Her heart sunk and she mumbled an apology to Bo for messing up.

"Messing up?" Bo suddenly cried, "What are you talking about? Talia, you just got away with stealing that woman's reading glasses!"

Confused, Talia shook her head slightly. "But Bo, these glasses are worthless."

"Who cares? Talia you got away with it. Who cares what you stole. This is just the beginning, right? And you didn't mess up… you were perfect!"

To her shock, Bo suddenly lunged for her and wrapped his stick-like arms around her small waist. The fact that he was hugging her surprised Talia so much that it took a moment before she could hug him back. They stood there together, practically glowing in the dim light with happiness, before a soft voice interrupted them.

"I'm jealous he was able to help you after only an hour," Prosper said, his hands stuffed into his pocket, "but I had a feeling it would work out like that. I'm glad it worked out like that."

Prosper grinned at Prosper, his eyes finally shining. Talia smirked back, her pale face flushing slightly. Bo grinned at both of them, and Talia realized he had the same smile as his older brother.

"No one even noticed her, Prop. If we keep helping Talia I'm sure she'll be a real thief in no time." His face was beaming, "And she was all upset because she only got a pair of glasses but I told her it was a good start because it was actually an amazing start for her first time. I don't even think I got anything my first time, right Prop?"

Prosper chuckled. "I can't remember Bo."

Bo shrugged, still grinning. "I'm going to grab some breakfast to celebrate. Will you two wait here for me?" Talia and Prosper both nodded and the young boy bounded off into the crowd.

There was a moment before Prosper turned to Talia. "You know," he told her, "I haven't seen him this happy in ages. I can't even remember the last time I saw that grin on his face. I mean the last time he ever called me Prop must have been when we were back living with Ida."

"Who's Ida?"

Prosper's expression suddenly changed into a shocked one when he had realized he had said too much. He dropped his eyes as he tried to come up with some sort of answer, but nothing would come out of his mouth fast enough?"

"Prosper?" Talia asked cautiously, feeling nervous. After a moment of silence she slowly asked, "Was Ida you're mother?"

"No," Prosper's voice lowered, "she was a woman we met here in Venice, back when we were all younger. Me, Bo, Riccio, Hornet and… well we were all kind of adopted by this woman Ida. She was really great for taking us in, but –" Prosper suddenly stopped, choking on his words, "- ugh, it just ended so unfairly! One night as she was walking home and gang approached her. They uh… t-they beat her to death. I mean they left her to bleed to death on the fucking street! They took her from us Talia, she was the only person who ever cared about any of us and when she died so did our chance of ever getting out of the streets."

Silence filled the space between Prosper and Talia when he had finished. Sucking her breath, Talia shakily said, "Prosper, I'm sorry about Ida. But I want to help. I want to help. I want to help get you off the streets and –"

"Don't Talia." Prosper quickly said, "Don't even say something like that because the idea is just too far off. We can't afford to get our hopes up like we did last time. Just too much has happened and we were finally starting to get through it when…"

"When I showed up," Talia finished for him, her voice soft and defeated.

Prosper nodded, "But you're a good thing."

Talia stared at Prosper, not being able to nod or say anything in agreement. Her being there was the gang was fairly bittersweet. Sure, maybe at the moment with Bo finally acting like a kid again and Riccio being able to stop the arguments more, it seemed fantastic at the time, but Talia was going to have to leave. She knew she would have to leave eventually and go back to her life at home full of money, food and clean clothes. It was the bitter truth the gang was all trying to avoid by just enjoying the sweetness of the moment they were in at the time.

Little did any of them know that by doing this, they would be completely unready for the harsh times that would be hitting them very soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Wiping her wet hair out of her eyes, Talia kneeled on the ground of the bedroom in her Grandma's house to shove some sweaters into an oversized plastic bag. The rain had started again after her first success in stealing. Everyone, even Hornet, was ecstatic when they found out about her stealing something as small and useless as glasses case, and it made Talia finally feel as if she had been accepted. She knew that the gang had all been cold, wet and uncomfortable from the rain for the last few days, so she had decided to give them some of her sweaters as a thank-you gift and for giving her a chance. Talia decided it was lucky she wasn't overly girly because she had enough sweaters for the boys to wear as well.

Slinging the bag over her shoulder, Talia tiptoed out of the bedroom. It wasn't late yet, but she would prefer it if she didn't have to run into her Grandma. Hoping her wet sneakers weren't being too loud on the steps, Talia finally made it to the front door, but before she walked back out into the rain, she stopped.

She could hear her grandma talking in the room over, and although Talia wasn't couldn't quite hear her, the words sounded familiar. They almost sounded… English. _What,_ Talia thought as she gently put down the duffle bag. There was no way her Grandma was speaking English because she only spoke Italian!

Curiosity getting the better of her, Talia slowly walked to the room to where her Grandma was talking on the phone. Before she could make it though, her wet sneakers slipped on the hardwood floor. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and with Talia's height, she came crashing loudly onto the ground.

Her grandma's head poked around the corner, looking terrified for a moment at the sight of Talia. After a long pause, she grumbled something in Italian and shoved the phone into Talia's hands. Still lying on the ground, Talia mumbled into the phone.

"Hello…"

"Talia, it's your father. Would you care to explain to me what's going on with you?"

"Sorry?"

"I'm being serious Talia. This is the first time I've spoken to you in five days –"

"Dad, I emailed you yesterday," Talia cut him off, rolling her eyes.

"That hardly counted as an email. It was only a few sentences long explaining _nothing_ as to what you've been up to. Your mother and I especially started getting worried when we ran into Jillian and she asked us what you had been up to because of your vague emails."

_Shit_, Talia thought as she closed her eyes. She remembered reading Jillian's long emails that she had probably spent an hour on writing, and then replying with no more than a pathetic paragraph. Talia had wanted to write more, but she knew she had to get back to the gang and wouldn't have time to explain everything she had been up to in an email. And knowing innocent, naïve Jillian, she probably wouldn't be able to understand why Talia was doing what she was doing without an explanation face to face.

"Whenever your mother and I call, Grandma always says that you're out and I guess I can understand that," her father continued, "and we even kind of understand not putting any effort into sending an email to your parents. But not even telling Jillian what you're up to when she's you're best friend? Do you understand why we're concerned here Talia?"

"Dad!" Talia snapped, "What are you even concerned about? I'm just doing what _you_ wanted me to, which was to go out and enjoy some city you shipped me off to for most of my summer. Would you rather me sit inside and play checkers with Grandma or something?"

"No Talia," sighed her father with irritation, "we just want to know what you've been doing, here from you every now and then, know that you're still alive –"

"Well I am alive, okay? You're talking to me right now, what more proof do you need?"

There was silence on the other end and a tiny wave of guilt washed over Talia for snapping so much at her dad. Sitting up, she glanced out the window and saw that it had stopped raining. If she wanted to keep the sweaters dry she'd have to hurry.

"Look dad, I got to go."

"Where are you going?"

"Just out."

"Talia, give me more of an answer then that."

"I don't know I'm just going for a walk okay? I'm going to go and look at some old cathedrals or something like good little tourist I am. I'll talk to you later dad, I promise. Bye!" With that she clicked off the phone and slammed it to the ground.

Hesitating with a sigh, Talia slowly got up to her feet. Snatching the bag, she opened the door and ran out into the humid Venice weather. She didn't bother telling her Grandma that she was leaving though. It's not like the woman could understand her anyways.

* * *

Prosper had wanted to have a dinner, a _real_ dinner, after Talia's successful morning. When Talia met him where he had asked her to, she noticed he was holding a bag of his own.

"What's in the bag?" she asked him.

He grinned, eyes shining. "Some pasta, pesto sauce and a couple bottles of water. We're going to have pasta tonight, even if it is cold. And what's in your own bag?"

"Oh… it's a gift." Talia felt nervous, not sure how thieves felt about receiving presents, "It's for all of you guys, as a thank you I guess, just for putting up with me. They're some sweaters. I have too many anyways and figured that with this weather you need them more then I do."

Prosper stared at the bag for a moment before nodding and sitting down on the damp ground. His face was blank, lost in his own thoughts, and Talia suddenly panicked that she had insulted him somehow.

"Prosper," she quickly said, sitting next to him, "Prosper I'm sorry. I can take the sweaters back. I didn't mean to be…" her voice faded when a tiny smile flicked back onto his face.

"Don't be stupid," he said although his voice was friendly, "the sweaters are perfect. I swear." He paused before looking up at Talia with a look on his face that was a mixture of embarrassment and something goofy.

Talia giggled. "What?" she asked, not sure where this was going.

"Okay," Prosper suddenly blurted, "I have a story to tell you, although you'll probably think of it as a fairytale."

"I'm a little old for fairytales Prosper, don't you think?"

"Just bear with me, okay?"

Giggling again, Talia nodded that she would. Once she did though, Prosper's face fell slightly as he became more serious. Taking a breath, he began to tell a story about a boy named Scipio. He called himself the Thieflord because he was supposedly the best thief around and all his friends looked up to him. It turned out, though, that the Thieflord had been nothing more but a liar. He wasn't really a thief. He just took things from his wealthy father, claiming that he had stolen them from a store or whatnot. His friends couldn't believe that they had looked up to such a fake and all knew that they could never trust their once-Thieflord again. But despite that, Scipio's friends all stayed with him.

Once day, Scipio had taken his friends to a marry-go-round, stating that if they went on it, they would be turned into adults. None of the friends wanted to go on the marry-go-round for they were too scared, but were also happy staying as children. Scipio made fun of them for being such cowards and said that if they turned into adults, they would be free to do whatever they wanted and not have to live on the streets anymore. Still no one would go onto the marry-go-ground. Scipio decided to go by himself, telling his friends that once he was an adult, he would be able to take care of all of them by getting a real job. So Scipio went on the marry-go-round and boy and came off a man.

As an adult, he was able to get a job and bring money to his young friends and for a while they were all happy. Scipio, who was popular as a child, was also popular as an adult. He began to make older friends and get better job opportunities that paid him more money, but he had to work harder, so hard that he hardly ever had time to play with his younger friends. One day, the youngest of Scipio's friends pointed out that he missed the younger Scipio and wished he had never turned into an adult. After working so hard, Scipio had been tired and got angry at the young boy, yelling that none of them understood and that they were all too needy and dependant on him too much. Scipio then stormed out on his friends. That was the last time any of them saw him, and although his friends looked for him for some time, they eventually stopped. They eventually realized that he had changed and wasn't going to come back.

Once Prosper finished his story, Talia arched her eyebrows in disbelief. "Well that's stupid!" she said loudly with a laugh.

Prosper looked at her closely. "Stupid in what way?" he asked.

"Well first off, I think it's stupid that you told me a fairytale because it made me feel like I was six. But I also think it was stupid on how Scipio's friends stayed with him after he had lied to them, after he had turned into an adult, and how they kept looking for him after he left. They knew they couldn't trust him so why bother?"

"I think it has something to do with the fact that they all loved him when they knew him as the Thieflord." Prosper said slowly, "So even after they had been betrayed and realized who Scipio truly was, they wanted to believe that the Thieflord was still somewhere in him and hoped that he would come through eventually."

"You sound like some therapist or something," Talia laughed, "so tell me Dr. Prosper, why are you telling me some random story like this that's filled with metaphors and meanings?" She laughed again.

"Well," Prosper took his time speaking, "the story that I just told you kind of happened to the gang and I."

Talia immediately stopped laughing. She stared hard at Prosper, waiting for a smile to break out on his face and tell her he was joking, but that never happened. They stared for each other for a long time until Talia finally had to look away, not being able to grasp what was happening.

"Wait… is the whole story about Scipio true to you guys, like how he went on some magic merry-go-round? Or just the part where you were he lied and betrayed and ditched you guys after you still stayed with him?"

A small, knowing smile was on Prosper's face, his eyes flashing mysteriously. He knew the answer to Talia's question, but he decided not to answer. She probably wouldn't have believed him anyways.

"I guess I'm just trying to say that the gang and I have been through a lot," Prosper told Talia, "and I mean _a lot_. There are things you don't know about the gang and there are probably things that I don't even know about the gang."

The thought of Hornet keeping her being raped a secret from her only friends immediately came to Talia's mind when Prosper said that.

"We had gotten into this weird state where we lived together and worked together, but it wasn't the same. One bad thing after another seemed to hit us and we just couldn't get out of it. I thought we'd be stuck like that forever, but then you showed up!"

This surprised Talia, and she sat up immediately. "Me?"

"Yes you!" Prosper said, grinning now, "I mean you showed up out of nowhere and you were suddenly someone who was interested in us. I can't even explain it Talia, but the longer you put up with our bitter selves, the more we began to change back to normal. I don't know why it happened, but it just did and I mean getting to be able to see my brother smile again… it was like a dream I hadn't seen it for so long." He stopped for a second, slightly out of breath. "So… thank you Talia. Thank you for coming out of the blue and stepping into our lives. I don't know what we'd be like now if it weren't for you. Thank-you so much."

Talia was grinning uncontrollably now. She couldn't help it. Never in her life had she been complimented in a way like that before. "You're welcome," she whispered, for it was all she could think of saying.

The two of them sat in silence after that, grinning at each other. Then, before Talia knew it, Prosper was kissing her. She had never been kissed like this before – it was slow, soft and sweet. While Talia was used to the crazy, heat-of-the-moment kissing that she thought had suited her wild personality, she suddenly realized that she liked this style better. The kiss fit Prosper's personality and she liked Prosper.

Didn't she?

Gasping, Talia suddenly pulled away (which was unbelievably hard to do). "Hornet!" she suddenly cried.

"What about Hornet?" Prosper looked hurt.

"Prosper, I c-can't do this, I'm sorry P-Prosper I c-can't…" she wasn't able to form her words clearly because she wasn't sure if Prosper wanted to hear what she was about to say, "I can't do this because of Hornet."

"What about Hornet?" he asked again.

Hesitating, Talia said, "Prosper, Hornet likes you. I don't know how long she has or if you or anyone else can tell because maybe it's some girl-connection-thingy, but I know for sure she does."

Prosper's mouth hung open slightly. "Hornet likes me?"

Talia sighed. "Yeah, she does a lot actually. She didn't like it that we were getting so close. That was the only reason why she was getting angry at me. So I can't do this to her Prosper. I mean I'm only here for a few weeks longer and if Hornet finds out… oh god if only you saw the way she looked at you sometimes Prosper."

"I… I hadn't even noticed."

Talia shrugged slightly. "Well like you've said, you've been through a lot lately. It's understandable."

Prosper looked up at Talia. "Are you sure she likes me?"

"Positive. I swear girls have this weird connection thing going on that guys are completely oblivious about. It's like we have our own secret language."

Smiling, Prosper nodded and looked up at the sky. It was dark and threatening with rain, but the boy seemed deep in thought and happy all the same. Smiling herself, Talia hoped that he was thinking about Hornet.

And so together they sat in the most comfortable silence ever, feeling even closer then imaginable, until tiny droplets of rain fell from the sky, telling them it was time to go home.

* * *

"I'm telling you officer, I'm a regular tourist to Venice and every single time I've had something stolen right out of my back pocket! Something has to be done about these wicked thieves running around."

Officer Moore nodded intently as he listened to a woman who had entered the police station. He was a fairly new cop, yet was one of the best not to mention one of the meanest. Already he had a nasty scar below his bottom lip and another next to one of his pale, grey eyes from fighting a gang five weeks ago. A tall, large tough man, fighting gangs was what he was into; not worrying about some stupid kid pickpockets who stole a wallet every now and then.

"Look ma'am," he said gruffly, bored with talking to old woman in front of him, "why don't you just return to your hotel or whatever. We try to deal with the pickpockets in Venice, but most of the time they're just homeless kids; nothing to worry about."

"Then those homeless kids should be in an orphanage where they belong!" the woman snapped.

Moore and the woman both sighed and rolled their eyes, irritated with each other. Their eyes both ended up looking out the window, where they stared out onto the less-crowded marketplace. As they continued to stare, they both noticed an impossibly small and frail boy with blonde curls slip his hand into the pocket of an oblivious man. His hand slipped out and off he walked with a wallet in his tiny hand.

"Did you see that?" the woman suddenly squealed, her voice so high-pitch that Moore flinched, "Did you see what that little brat just did to that poor, clueless man?"

"Yeeessss, I did." Moore replied slowly.

"Well then why don't you go after him? Why won't you get off your ass and be helpful?"

_Because I don't care about some goddamn thief who steals five extra bucks from some over-privileged tourist,_ Moore wanted to shout, but stayed calm by keeping his mouth closed and taking a deep breath. The woman in front of him suddenly groaned and shoved her hand into her purse and when it came out, she was clutching a thick roll of bills.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she grumbled, "but I am _so_ sick of these thieves running around that I'm going to pay you to go and catch that little boy we just saw. Prove it to me that you've put him into an orphanage and you can expect double the money that I'm giving you right now. Understood?"

The woman suddenly threw her card on his desk as well so that he could contact her when he had succeeded. With that, the woman stormed out of his office.

Moore could only stare. His usual narrow, grey eyes were twice the size as he stared at the money on his desk. There was so much that he couldn't even count it without having to pick up each bill individually. And to think that it could be doubled…

Jumping up from his desk, Moore shoved the money into his wallet and shoved it into his desk before grabbing his coat. He was going to go catch himself a thief.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N – Hey! Just like to thank every for all the reviews. I swear, they're what keep pushing me to finish this. Thanks for being so patient for me to get a chapter up even though I know it takes me so long. You guys are great!! Xo

* * *

Despite the cold rain outside, the small room where the thieves gathered every day hadn't felt warmer. Four candles lit up the room, giving the pasty walls an amber-colored glow. Prosper stirred pesto into the pot of cold pasta while Hornet wiped dust off some old plates with a cloth. The two of them were sitting close together and Talia smiled secretly as she wiped dust off the few forks they had; if it weren't for her, Prosper would probably still be oblivious to Hornet's feelings. Then there was Riccio, who sat on the other side of Prosper, wiping pesto sauce off from the side of the pot with his finger and licking it.

"Hey, save some of that for dinner." Prosper said, grinning, "Seriously, I'm going to have to move to the other side of the room!"

Riccio nodded, his red hair getting in his eyes, but wiped his finger along the side of the pot once again giggling. "When is Bo going to get here so we can finally eat?" he asked loudly.

"He said he wanted to get dessert," Talia explained as she carefully laid the forks out onto one of her clean sweaters to keep them from getting dirty, "probably getting some cookies or muffins from the bakery I'm guessing."

Riccio licked his lips at this, but Hornet frowned slightly. She was wearing another one of Talia's sweaters. It was a pastel purple zip up sweater that looked better on Hornet, with the shade of her hair and eyes, than it ever did on Talia. When Talia had pulled it out for her, Hornet treated it as if it were made of gold and swore that she would do her best to never get it dirty.

"But Bo couldn't still be at the bakery," Hornet pointed out, a strange look showing in her brown eyes, "it would be closed now. What time is it anyways? Aren't most things closed now?"

"Yeah," Riccio agreed unsurely, "but then where's Bo?" He was pulling the tail of his toy cat through his fingers now and Talia quickly cleared her voice.

"It's probably just the rain guys." She tried to sound reassuring, "He probably had to wait for it to hold up because it's pouring right now. He'll be back soon."

Prosper nodded. "Besides, you know Bo. He's always running around, getting distracted, doing his own thing."

They left it at that, the four of them all nodding to each other, trying to convince each other it was true. The longer they sat there though, the tenser the air became between the four of them. The light from the candles grew dim as they melted and Prosper's arm was getting sore from stirring the pasta so it wouldn't harden.

"Maybe he got lost," Riccio finally said. Although he was completely serious, Talia couldn't help but smile. Riccio meant well, but there was no way that Bo, a thief, could be lost. It just wasn't possible. Looking up, Talia realized that Hornet was grinning as well. So was Prosper. The three of them eyed each other.

And then they started to laugh.

It started as a small giggle, but in no time it grew. After staring at the three of them in confusion, Riccio found that he was laughing with them as well. It was contagious. It wasn't even that funny, but the four of them laughed loudly. It felt good to laugh, to forget about the pasta in front of them they wanted so badly, to forget why they were scared. Even for a brief moment.

The door to the room suddenly burst open and the laughter stopped immediately. Bo stood in the doorway, completely drenched. In his hand was a bag of cookies, probably chocolate chip, but no one even noticed them.

"I'm being followed," he cried, "there's a cop after me. I knew I shouldn't have come here, but then there was suddenly more than one cop. I didn't know what to do –" A sob escaped Bo's throat and he clutched the top of his head with his free hand.

In one smooth swoop, Hornet was at his side, taking the bag from his side and gently placing it on the ground. She then unzipped Bo's soaking sweater and slid it off of his thin torso. "It'll be okay," she told him, "let's get you into something dry first." Giving him a small hug, she briskly went across the room to grab one of Talia's clean sweaters.

"A cop?" Riccio suddenly cried, "No wait, a bunch of cops? What are we going to do?!"

"First off we're not going to panic," Prosper said as he jumped to his feet, "or yell." He quickly blew out the four candles and the room was swallowed by blackness. No one spoke as they let their eyes adjust to the dark, the only sound coming from Bo's quick and panicked breathing.

Talia got to her feet, shaking slightly. Cops? None of her training had taught her how to deal with cops except to run. She had always expected it to be during the day though, not at night when it was pouring out. She folded her arms across her chest.

"Bo," Talia asked quietly, "how close are the cops? Were they on this street when you came in here?"

There was a moment of hesitation before Bo whispered, "Yeah. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come here. They probably saw –"

"Don't say that," Prosper quickly said, "you did the right thing."

"Prosper?" Riccio asked quietly, "Do we have to leave? Do we have to find a new home again?"

No one answered. They didn't want to, but they knew it was the only answer. Whether the cops had seen where Bo had gone or not, they couldn't risk it. Chances were they knew he was somewhere on the street. The gang had to get out as soon as they could.

"We'll have to move fast," Prosper said as he emptied the bag of cookies, "and we'll have to split into two groups to confuse them." Placing the cookies onto the sweater with the forks on it, he scooped the pasta into the bag. "Talia, you have big pockets on your sweater, can you put these cookies in them?"

Talia nodded, still unable to speak. They would have to leave here… forever? She couldn't imagine that they were going to leave their home just like that. They didn't even have somewhere else to go. They were on the run.

"Who's in what group?" Hornet asked shakily. Everyone's eyes had fully adjusted to the dark now, and Talia could tell Hornet was hugging the youngest, upset boy.

There was a pause before Talia suddenly said, "Let me take Bo."

"I don't know Talia…" Prosper said uneasily.

"Seriously, I mean it," Talia brushed a curly strand of dark hair out of her eyes, "Bo is who they're after. I'm taller than all of you and I'm not from here, so there's no chance the cops will recognize me. If they see me from a distance they may just think I'm an adult. And Bo can make sure I don't get lost."

"Talia…" Prosper said again.

"No, it'll work." Bo suddenly pulled away from Hornet, "It makes sense, her plan. And we really need to leave."

"Fine," Prosper agreed, although he didn't sound too against the idea, "Hornet, you'll come with me –"

"What about me?!" Riccio cried, sounding terrified of being left behind. This was immediately followed by the whole room shushing him and Prosper hissing, "I was going to say that you'll be coming with me as well."

"Oh," Riccio let out a small laugh, "sorry."

After that, the group decided that they would meet in the park once they were sure they had lost the cops. Whichever group got there first wasn't allowed to leave until the sun had risen and the second group had yet to arrive. That meant that something had happened to the second group and the first group was allowed to look for them. Prosper, Hornet and Riccio would leave first to make sure there were no cops outside. If they didn't start screaming and yelling then Talia and Bo would know it was safe to leave. It wasn't a foolproof plan – it wasn't even close, but it would have to do. It was all they had.

* * *

"… 57…58…59…60…" Talia took a deep breath and turned to Bo. He was nibbling on one of the cookies she had given him. "Are you ready to go?" she whispered.

"Yeah… and Talia?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm sorry. Not just about this, but about before how I was so mean to you. I was just being stupid."

Throat too tight and stomach to knotted to speak, Talia hugged Bo to let him know she forgave him. She just wished she was able to tell him she was never angry at him in the first place.

Grabbing his hand, Talia slowly opened the door. Apart from the rain, it was quiet. The two of them quietly jumped over the gap in the stairs for the last time and descended, reaching the front entrance. The rain made it blurry and impossible to see more than four feet in front of them. It was impossible to tell if anyone was there. Bo clenched Talia's hand a little harder and Talia squeezed his hand back to let him know she was there.

Then, together, they blindly stepped out into the night and began to run.


	10. Chapter 10

It didn't feel like summer anymore. Maybe it was from being damp from the rain, or the fact that no one had had a decent meal in days, or even that they were all slightly terrified of the situation they were in. Maybe they were just imagining it. Whatever it was, the thieves couldn't help but feel wickedly cold as they ran up and down in the dark. It was a sickening icy feeling that hit each thief so strongly that they could feel it in the pit of their empty stomachs.

"Okay, we'll crouch here until Bo and Talia arrive." Prosper whispered as he gestured to a large log that lay in the park. Prosper, Hornet and Riccio hunkered down together, letting their shoulders in hopes that each other's body heat would warm them.

After a moment's pause, Hornet whispered, "Does anyone want some pasta?" she lifted up the large plastic bag, "And I'm sorry to say that I forgot to bring forks."

No one minded though. They didn't really feel like eating. The pasta had been made for all of them; it was supposed to be a dinner of celebration the five of them could share together. But they weren't all together. The two that had been unusually paired together had yet to show up.

"Don't worry, Bo and Talia will be here in no time," Prosper reminded the others, although part of it had said it to reassure himself.

Hornet and Riccio nodded, because they knew it was the only acceptable response. All at once, the three thieves dropped their heads, deep in though. They moved a little closer to each other, still shivering, still desperate for heat. As they did, Riccio suddenly realized that in the mad rush of things, he had left his toy cat behind. His beloved stuffed cat was probably lying on the dusty floor, deserted, its glassy eyes staring into the dark. And it was here that Riccio began to whimper.

* * *

Gasping for breath, Talia and Bo ducked into an alleyway. The rain had slowed down to a drizzle, and although it was still dark out, everything had become easier to see. Still holding onto Bo's hand, Talia glanced down at the small boy. Water and dirt was dripping off of his angular face.

"Did you see them?" she asked him, her voice shaking.

Bo nodded. "Yeah."

"Did they see us?" Talia gulped as she waited for Bo's response. "Bo, did the cops see us running?" The look on frightened and lost look Bo's face was enough of an answer to tell Talia they had. Closing her eyes, Talia took a deep breath to try and calm herself down. "How far until we reach the park?"

There was a pause before Bo started sniveling. "I'm so tired," his voice cracked, "I can't run anymore Talia, I'm so…" His grasp on Talia's hand loosened and for a terrifying moment, Talia thought the boy would pass out. Instead, his body went slightly limp as he leaned all of his underweight structure onto Talia.

Quickly crouching down, Talia shook Bo slightly. "It'll be okay Bo, I promise," she told him, "I mean we're doing okay. I just need you to tell me how to get to get to the park. Then we'll be able to meet up with Prosper and Riccio and Hornet… you'll be able to see all of them again! I just need to know where we're going Bo."

Dim eyes fluttering, Bo nodded. "It's not far," he spoke slowly; "we just have to go along the water's edge. Just for about three blocks. Then we turn right and we're there."

Nodding encouragingly, Talia grasped Bo by his shoulders. "Good, good, we can do that Bo. We're so close. But we need to get moving."

"I know, I know," Bo said as he straightened up. He grabbed onto her hand again, but exhaustion had taken over and he wasn't able to hold on as tightly. Worried his hand would slip out, Talia strengthened her grip. Bo winced slightly at her hold on his hand, but Talia was determined not to let him go. She couldn't lose him.

With that, they bolted out of the alleyway and down the street. The cops were nowhere to be seen. Their light footsteps made almost no sound as their feet padded against the cobblestone. _One block_. Talia began to pick up speed. She couldn't help it. Just like exhaustion had taken over Bo, fear had taken over Talia and she wouldn't dare slow down. They were so close. _Two blocks._Talia could practically smell the scent of damp bark from the trees. Maybe she was imagining it, but she was pretty sure she could see their branches hanging over the street. And, wait… what was that up ahead. What was that in the water?

Before Talia could figure out what it was, Bo let out a tiny cry as he stumbled on the street. Without slowing down her pace, Talia glanced back to make sure she was okay. Looking back up ahead, she took in a sharp breath and skidded to a halt. There was a man in front of her.

"No," she whispered, but before she could say or do anything else, a pair of hands came from behind and ripped Bo away from her. "No!" she said again, only louder. As she made a lunge for Bo, the police man who stood in front of her grabbed her by the neck of her sweater and yanked her back. She fell to the ground but he still kept hold of her by her sweater. The cop was practically choking her.

"Officer Moore," the cop holding Bo said, "is this the boy we're after."

Shining a flashlight onto Bo's face, Officer Moore stared at him intensely. Bo tried to squirm away, but the cop just grabbed onto his face to keep him still. Officer More nodded at last. "We got him," he said flatly before shoving Talia to the ground, "take him away."

Bo started screaming and Talia scrambled up to her feet. Once she was standing, she realized the thing she had spotted in the water was approaching them. It was a boat. A police boat, filled with two other cops. A sickening wave washed over Talia as she realized how outnumbered she and Bo were.

"Let go of him!" yelled Talia as she went to grab Bo. Bo stretched out his one free hand in order to grab Talia's, but Officer Moore yanked Talia back again. "Don't do this," Talia yelled, "please don't do this… at least take me with you. I'm a thief! I'm a thief too! Take me with you."

Officer Moore glanced at the cops in the police boat. It was a small boat, already practically full with just the two large cops. Officer Moore chuckled sinisterly. "Don't worry," he hissed to Talia, "I'll be getting you at some point. Just not now. You thieves are too big for both of you to fit in the boat."

The cops all started laughing. Neither Talia nor Bo understood why. "Then take me instead," Talia tried again, "if you can only take one of us take me, just don't take him, please!"

"Sorry little lady," Officer Moore said again, "but to get the cash, I need this exact boy right here. Now stop making this difficult and get out of our way." He shoved Talia to the ground once again (she was so easy to push around, tall, too skinny and awkward), then moved towards the boat. "Alright boys, let's take this thief to the orphanage."

All at once, Bo's screams erupted as they lowered him into the boat. "No!" he weeped, tears streaming down his face, "No, don't take me. Not the orphanage. Talia, TALIA! Please don't let them take me. Don't let them take me!"

"Let go of him!" Talia screamed as she made one final attempt of attacking Officer Moore. She was like a twig to him though, useless and easy to break. All he had to do was swing his arm out, smack her in the head and she flew backwards. He knew that was all she needed.

"Let's get out of here," he told the other cops as he jumped in the boat.

Talia groaned as her head exploded with pain. It had hurt on one side where Officer Moore had hit her, but it also hurt on the other side where she had skidded across the ground. Was that blood she felt, dripping from her head? Groaning, Talia stand, but could only get as far as sitting up. Even that was too much for her frail body and she felt like she was going to be sick. The world was spinning and she tried to find where she was.

"TALIA, don't let them do this! Please, anything but the orphanage. TALIA!!"

"Bo…" Talia tried to say, but it hardly left her mouth before there was a roar of a boat engine. Police lights started spinning, making her feel even dizzier. Why couldn't she get up? She _had_ to get up. "Bo…" she tried again, but her body couldn't focus.

Then, the boat started moving. It started moving fast and away from Talia, its flashing lights overwhelming and Bo's desperate cries louder than the engine itself. The lights then faded as the boat turned and vanished around a corner, but Bo's screams lasted longer. She could hear them, echoing off the ancient walls of crumbling buildings. She could hear them because they were there to let her know she had failed. Talia had failed all of the thieves.

Bo was gone.

* * *

Talia didn't care how loud she was, she had to find them.

"Prosper!" she yelled, stomach churning as she stumbled into the center of the park, "Prosper! Hornet, Riccio, where are you!"

There was the sound of shuffling, followed by Riccio's meek voice. "Over here." Slowly, the three thieves stood up from their couching position, limps stiff from not moving in the cold. They looked so relieved to see Talia standing there that Talia felt she may start to cry with the news she had to tell them. But she couldn't hold it in anymore, so she swallowed hard before yelling:

"They took Bo!"

No one moved. A nauseating feeling hit everyone so hard that they practically forgot to breathe. Prosper, Hornet and Riccio's expressions all went emotionless. Everything was so still and the guilt was so heavy that Talia gasped.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, "I tried, I really did, and we were so close…" she took a step forwards to see if anyone would approach her. Stillness.

"Where did they take him?" Prosper snapped. The harshness in his voice scared Talia and she found she couldn't answer. "Where did they take him?" Prosper yelled this time and Talia flinched.

"Prosper," Hornet said softly as she gently touched his arm to calm him down. When she looked up though, Talia saw no sympathy in her brown eyes.

"They took him," Talia tried again, shaking, "they said they were going to take him to the orphanage."

Riccio's eyes were suddenly huge and his mouth dropped. "Mosca…" he squeaked, "Prosper we can't let Bo… I mean Mosca…" His fingers were closing around the air, as if reaching out for something reassuring to grab onto.

Pulling away from Hornet, Prosper walked in a small circle, head dropped as he tried to think. "I know Riccio," he said angrily. He paused and clutched his head, unable to come up with an idea of any sort.

Talia remembered the story of Mosca, how he had been taken to an orphanage. But Prosper had said he'd escaped, and although she didn't know where he had gone after that, he _had _escaped.

"But Mosca…" Riccio said again, crying slightly.

"Riccio, please." Hornet said firmly before turning to Prosper, "Look Prosper, we may not have a plan right now but we need to get to that orphanage. There's only one around here that Bo is bound to be at so we might as well head over there. Whether we figure out what we're going to do or not, the most important part is that Bo knows we're there for him."

Prosper nodded, breathing hard. "Okay," he said, "okay… Hornet, Riccio, let's go." He started to walk away.

"But what about me?" Talia asked loudly, hearing the fear in her voice. Prosper didn't stop. Her eyes were stinging now, "Prosper, what about me. You can't just leave me here. I want to help get Bo. Please let me –"

"It's okay Talia," Hornet said, staring at her hard, "you've already done enough." Then with that, she grabbed onto sniveling Riccio's hand and pulled him after her. Following Prosper's lead, neither of them turned around.

"Guys," begged Talia, "guys please. Please I'm sorry I lost Bo… just give me a second chance." Silence followed her pleads until eventually the three thieves were swallowed by the night. Talia tried calling after them again, but only the night answered and she couldn't get her legs to run after them.

So there Talia stood, alone, taking in short and sharp breaths. Then suddenly, she was overtaken with emotions. Her head started throbbing once again. Her stomach growled as she realized how starving she truly was. Her legs were exhausted from running everywhere. Her body couldn't take it anymore and collapsed to the ground, clutching her head. She could feel the strange sensation of tears rolling down her cheeks. Closing her eyes, visions of Bo's petrified face filled Talia's mind as well as his screams. Prosper, Hornet and Riccio came next, with his disappointed and hateful expressions. They were in trouble. The gang was in serious trouble and it was Talia's fault.

And then she screamed.


	11. Chapter 11

Someone had touched her shoulder, and considering the time of night, Talia couldn't think of who it could be apart from some drunk or a cop. Not one was better than the other, so Talia screamed and thrashed around wildly. Her body was still in too much pain to get up and run, but the screaming and trying to punch the stranger in front of her didn't come easily either until it got to the point where Talia just gave up.

_Fine_, she thought, _let the cop take me in; maybe I'll get to see B__o. Let the drunk rape me; then maybe I'll see things the way Hornet does. Maybe then I'll understand why they all left me here. Maybe then I'll understand why they didn't think I tried…_

A tiny cough followed by a tiny voice interrupted her distressed thoughts. "Talia?"

Through her blurred vision, Talia first saw the sihlouette of a small boy; his damp sweater sagging off one shoulder, his pants barely hanging onto his hips, his spikey hair. And his face slowly became clear, and soon Talia was staring directly into the eyes of a solemn looking Riccio. Her mouth dropped open in shock and she couldn't even say his name. As she struggled to form some sort of word, he started to talk.

"They're not mad at you," he said seriously, his face emotionless, "they're just scared. They're scared because there was a boy we knew. He was a thief like us, only calmer and probably smarter then any of us. His name was Mosca."

_Mosca_! Talia suddenly sat up at the name of the mystery boy. Riccio continued.

"He had a boat, Mosca did. He had made his own gondala and paddled tourists around, making money. At the same time though, he would steal from the tourists while they were ignoring him. Somehow word got out about this boy working and stealing, so one day a cop came on disguised as a tourist. Then they took him.

"We didn't know what had happened to Mosca for a few days. He just never came home. We tried looking for him, but we didn't know they had taken him to the orphanage. We were too stupid, Talia, we were too stupid to think that he had been captured. So we just kept on looking without looking for him at the orphanage.

"The one day, Hornet returned home. She was all pale and scared looking and shaking, but in her hands was a newspaper. There was an article about a boy who was in an orphanage. The article said he had commited s… commited s…" Riccio stumbled over his words as his voice shook slightly, "… the article said he had jumped out of the window from the top floor. Then there was a blurred picture of a boy on the ground, and we all knew it was Mosca."

"Mosca killed himself Talia," he was whispering now, as if afraid to speak, "he killed himself because he thought we had forgotten about him. He couldn't get out of orphanage, so he did the only thing he thought he could do!"

Talia could feel her eyes widen in disbelief and confusion as she tried to compare Riccio's story to Prosper's. Prosper said Mosca had escaped from the orphanage, only he had never said what happened to him. _So he did escape_, Talia thought, _he was able to get outside the walls of the orphanage, he just killed himself in the process…_

"Riccio," Talia tried to say, but he started speaking again.

"I swear they're not mad at you," he told her, "they're just scared. They don't want it to happen again. What happened to Mosca, they don't want Bo to think he has to do the same thing. They're not mad at you, so please don't be mad at them."

Nodding slowly, Talia got up to her feet, wiping her sticky face with the back of her hand. "Okay," she said "it's okay. I'm not mad, no one's mad…"

Her voice faded as she stared at Riccio. His eyes were looking at the ground, impassive and lifeless. His arms were hanging lazily at his side. Riccio was lost, taken over by the memories of Mosca and his traumatizing ending. Talia wanted to hug him or do something to show him it was going to be okay, but something in the air told her to keep her distance from him at this moment.

"Riccio," she asked cautiously, "how long ago did this happen, with Mosca."

The boy took in a few deep breaths for answering, "Less then a month ago."

It was here that Talia suddenly understood why there had been so much tension between the thieves when she had first met them. The death of Mosca had just been hanging over them, a bitter reminder, and none of them had known how to deal with it. They didn't know how to talk about it with each other but they knew they couldn't just forget about it, so the tension must have formed.

"What are we going to do Talia," Riccio asked.

"I don't…" Talia stopped herself from admitting the truth, so instead she asked, "Where do Prosper and Hornet think you are."

"I told them I was taking another way to the orphanage, but instead I came here. They're going to be wondering where I am soon, but we need to tell someone Talia. We need an older person, an adult to help us. If someone just cared about this and us for a little bit we might be able to save Bo. What are we going to do Talia?"

There was a pause. Then an idea. And then, Talia grabbed Riccio's hand. "I've got something," she said before her never-ending legs start picking up pace.

* * *

Talia and Riccio burst through the door of a house. It was here that Riccio let go of Talia's hand. Out of breath, he just stood in the doorway, unsure of where they were. It had been ages since he had been in a home, fully furnished and clean. Talia took a few brisk steps into the house.

"Grandma!" she yelled loudly, "Grandma I need to talk to you. Grandma where are you this is important!"

There were a few grunts and some grumbles in Italian as an old woman hobbled out of the kitchen. She was wearing her nightgown and a pair of slippers. She began speaking fast in Italian with an irritated voice at Talia, probably complaining on how late it was, until she noticed the gaping eyes of Riccio. His face was dirty, his clothes were wet, and he wasn't wearing any shoes. The old woman froze, not sure what to make of this sight, before shifting her gaze to Talia once again.

"Look, I know you don't speak English so I know you have no idea what's going on right now," Talia said, "but I need you to try and understand. A boy I know is in trouble and we need help. He's been taken to an orphanage and if we don't get him out…"

Talia stopped speaking. Her Grandma's eyebrows were arched and she looked more lost then ever. _What are you doing here,_ Talia thought miserably, _she doesn't know what you're saying? She isn't going to be any use to you_.

Talia's Grandma suddenly cleared her throat, thinking hard. Then, to everyone's astonishment, the woman began speaking English. She had a thick accent, but it was English enough. "Grab my coat," she told Talia, "then take me to this boy who you say is in trouble. On the way, you will tell me what you have gotten yourself into."

Talia's mouth dropped open. What was going on here?!

"Close you're mouth!" her Grandma suddenly snapped, "You look like a dead fish. Now go, you grab my coat and we go!"

Snapping her mouth shut, Talia scrambled to the closet. "Yes Grandma," she said.

"And another thing – do not ever call me Grandma again. I feel old. Call me by my name, Speranza."

"Yes Speranza!"

As Talia closed the closet door, she made brief eye contract with Riccio. He was clearly trying to understand what was going on, but Talia just shook her head to tell her she was just as lost as he was. It didn't matter though, because something about the toughness in Spernaza's voice made both of them feel safer. It made both of them feel as if they had a chance to save Bo.

* * *

**A/N – What, her grandma speaks English??!! I know, pretty crazy, but it was all part of the plan. Even more crazy is that the end of **_**This Place is a Prison **_**is approaching soon! I'll try to get it out as soon as possiable. Xo **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N – HEY! Two chapters up in one day1 I know, you must be pretty shocked considering on how long it usually takes me. ****xo**

It really late now, or maybe it was just early in the morning. Talia couldn't tell. Her nerves were too tense for her to be tired, not to mention she still had no idea as to what was going on. Grandma, or better known as Speranza, was walking full steam ahead of Talia and Riccio. For such a small and old woman, she moved with amazing speed. It was as if someone who could walk fast and speak English had taken over Speranza's body!

"So tell me again," Speranza said gruffly, "how many people are stuck in this orphanage?"

"I told you," Talia responded, "only Bo is actually in the orphanage. He's the little boy who's been taken by the cops."

"But who are the other two you told me about… uh, bumble bee and the other one or something."

"Do you mean Hornet and Prosper?" asked Riccio.

Speranza shrugged. "Sure."

"They're not in the orphanage." Talia felt like was a broken record player, forced to repeat herself over and over again, "They're just there to try and get Bo out, only I don't think they know how to. That's why I came to get you."

Quick as a whip, Speranza asked, "And what makes you think I know how to get them out?"

In all honesty, Talia didn't know. At the time when she and Riccio were in the park, she had decided that what she needed was an adult. Talia was fed up with the amount of freedom she had from lack of adults. What she wanted was some guidelines and a pair of arms to fall into when she was running away from cops, but it was hard to do that when you just lived with a bunch of kids.

_Because that's what we are,_ Talia suddenly realized, _a bunch of kids with no guidance or direction. _What had she thinking, speaking so rudely to her parents on the phone, not even bothering to get to know her grandma a little better. In truth, Talia wasn't ready to truly take care of herself properly, neither was any of the thieves. A shiver went down Talia's spine as she thought about thieves living a full day with no adult supervision when she just wanted to give up after a few weeks. The thieves she had met truly were amazing.

"We just needed someone older than us to tell us it was going to be okay," Talia finally said, her voice low. Speranza turned her head around to glance at Talia while keeping the same brisk pace. Her expression softened and the corners of her thin lips turned up into a gentle smile. It was exactly that kind of look that Talia needed to know they were going to be okay.

"Can I ask a question?" Riccio spoke after some time, "Talia, how come you told us that Speranza didn't speak English when she clearly does?"

Talia laughed. "Know one told me she spoke English! Even my parents said she only spoke Italian! Honestly Speranza, what was up with all of that?"

Turning her head around once again, a familiar smirk spread across Speranza's face. As she did, Riccio let out a tiny gasp as he realized that it was the same infamous smirk Talia wore on her own face. That small, cheeky, knowing smile must have been passed down from her grandma.

"This has been a plan your parents and I had planned since your birth." Speranza explained to Talia and Riccio, "When it was clear that I was going to live in Venice for the rest of my life, the three of often talked about you visiting me when you were just a bun in the oven. The idea formed when we were wondering how you were going to experience Venice the way your father when he lived here, and he said he truly discovered the city when he just wandered it by himself. From that, this plan shaped into this idea. It sounds silly, but the three of us couldn't wait for you to come and experience it."

"I don't get it though," Talia said, "why did you have to pretend you didn't speak English?"

Speranza chuckled. "I guess to give you independence."

"But how did you know I wasn't about to go drink my face off, get addicted to drugs and get knocked up a bunch of Italians?" cried Talia, still not understanding.

"I raised your father correctly and we all knew he was going to raise you correctly. You come from a smart family, Talia, you're not stupid. We knew the second you were born that you would be okay in Venice by yourself. Although this situation you've gotten yourself into is something of itself. Joining a band of thieves was never one of the risks we thought you might face while being here."

"It's not her fault though!" Riccio said defensively, "Everything was going fine until some cop had to come and mess things up."

"Well if you are supposed to be thieves," pointed out Speranza, "should you not be used to having cops involved in your life? A real thief would know exactly what to do if one of their buddies got caught by a cop."

"But a _real_ real cop doesn't get caught by thieves," Riccio added quickly.

"Then what does that say about you?" Speranza said sharply with a wicked grin on her face.

"Speranza!" cried Talia, shocked at how cruel she was being to such the tiny boy. How could such a small, stout woman who spoke English as her second language have so much wit in her?

Nonetheless, Riccio didn't let it get to him. Crossing his arms, he lifted his nose in the air and sounded sure of himself as he spoke. "We are real thieves who never get caught by cops, but there's a first for everything."

Glancing over her shoulder at the red-haired boy, Speranza smiled fondly at Riccio as she let out a chuckle. Riccio grinned back, beaming that he had had the last word. Then in an instant, Speranza came to a hault. It was so unexpected that Talia couldn't stop herself in time and walked right into the back of her grandma.

"Ooh, sorry!" she said quickly, the Speranza ignored her. There was an eerie silence as Talia followed Riccio and Speranza's eyes to the building in front of them. As Riccio nervously slipped his hand into Talia's, she figured that they had finally made it to the orphanage.

* * *

"See, you get your very own room for the night. How do you like that?"

Bo stared up blankly at the woman who ran the orphanage. She had said her name was Rosa, but when she asked for Bo's name he had given no response. He had decided that he wasn't going to say a word to anyone who ran such a prison as this. Rosa's may have been sweet, but couldn't she realize that this was the last place that Bo wanted to be?

"Now I've laid out some pajamas for you," Rosa began again when Bo refused to speak, "do you need anything else? Water? Maybe a little bit of food? You are quite a tiny one aren't you?"

Bo said nothing.

Rosa rolled her eyes in irritation. She was a rather plump woman with a square head and narrow eyes. Her hair was up in rollers and she looked as if she just wanted to go back to bed, which was where she had been before the cops had woken her up. Too tired to be nice any longer, she began to leave the room.

"Well," her voice was harder sounding now, "here's your room. I'll be waking you up in the morning for breakfast. We're having porridge. Does that sound good?"

Bo said nothihg once again, so Rosa let out a sigh before closing the bedroom door. This was followed by the turn of a lock. Bo's blood ran cold when he suddenly realized he had been locked in. Unsure of what to do, he slowly gazed around the room. It was simple with a bed and a set of drawers and a small painting on the wall. There were lights too, but Rosa had turned them off. It was the kind of room that Bo had dreamed of, but now that he was here, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Shoulders shaking, the frail boy took a few steps across the hardwood floors. He was so light that he didn't make a sound as he approached the window on the other side of the room. Glancing out into the night, Bo didn't see much. He was four stories high and had hoped to see someone familiar standing outside the window, waiting for him, but all he could see was the vines that had crept up the brick wall from the ground.

Bo stared at the ground for a long time, a strange sensation filling his body. Never had he longed to feel the Earth beneath his feet instead of the wood floor as he had in this place.

_The feeling continued to grow. _

Things had changed when Hornet returned that one day, holding the newspaper in her hands. The thieves suddenly weren't as close as they had used to be. After reading of Mosca's death, Bo hadn't understood why Mosca had decided to jump, but the sudden distance between everyone had made Bo too scared to ask. So he never did.

_The feeling grew still_

But maybe this was the answer. The longer Bo stood the window, the more he longed to be out of this place and the more that something grew inside of him. Maybe this was what Mosca had been feeling every day he spent in the orphanage, every day he spent waiting for someone to show up for him. But no one did show up for him, so maybe the feeling just continued to grow until he couldn't ignore it, so he left the orphanage the only way he could. And maybe flying through the air was the most amazing feeling Mosca had ever experienced, and even though heknew what was going to happen in the end, he was relieved because he wouldn't have to spend another moment in this godforsaken prison. Maybe that was why he had done it, because he wanted to be free again. Maybe…

And the feeling inside of Bo grew, until he felt so light that he couldn't even tell that he was standing anymore. Bo took a breath, and then with hesitation, he opened the window.


	13. Chapter 13

They were both breathless from running, but they couldn't stop now. They had already wasted enough time trying to find their way to the orphanage and maybe even getting lost on the way (although neither of them would admit it). _Surely it's just around this corner,_ Prosper thought as he picked up speed. To his shock though, he had to come to a sudden hault. He and Hornet had reached a tall and long hedge, covering a fence. They had reached a dead end.

This couldn't be right…

"Arrgh!" Prosper cried out in frustration, "Why isn't the orphanage here? I thought for sure it was here! I must have passed it a thousand times, why can't I remember where it is!"

"Look, don't worry Prosper," Hornet shushed him, "just don't yell, please. Those cops might still be around here. It won't do us any good if they catch us."

"At least _they'd_ be able to take us to the damn orphanage," he sneered, not meaning to be as malicious as he sounded. Crushed, Hornet closed her mouth. The two of them stood in silence, thinking hard. As they did, the sound of something cracking open distracted them.

"What was that?" asked Prosper, stiffening.

"It came from the other side of the fence." The words had hardly left Hornet's mouth before Prosper was shoving his way through the hedge. Twigs and thorns clung onto his baggy clothes and grabbed the skin on his face and hands, but he ignored the sharp twinges of pain. There was little space between the hedge and fence Prosper realized, and glancing up, he also realized the fence had to be at least seven feet high. Hornet joined him at his side. "So you were right," she whispered, "the orphanage is here."

Puzzled, Prosper shifted his glance towards Hornet. She wasn't looking at him though. Her beautiful brown eyes were broad and glassy as they stared ahead, mystified. Following her gaze, Prosper was shocked to see a tall brick building.

Then, there was the same cracking sound they had heard before. It took them a second to realize it was the sound of a window being opened. It sounded as if it hadn't been opened for years.

Hornet suddenly grabbed onto Prosper's arm. "Prosper," she gasped, "Prosper look! Look, it's Bo. It's Bo in the window! I'm sure it's him!"

"I see him, I see him!" Prosper responded with excitement, relieved to see his brother again. He let out a laugh as he stared at his brother. "What's he doing by the window anyways?" There was a brief pause before a nauseating feeling hit both Prosper and Hornet. They were both thinking of one word; _Mosca_.

"BO!" Prosper screamed before Hornet clasped her hand over his mouth.

"Prosper, the cops," she whimpered, "we can't let them hear us. Look, I think I see the entrance over there." She pointed with her hand across the field where the orphanage stood. Prosper determined that it was a good two block run to get there.

"I don't think we have time for that Hornet," his voice shook, "and I don't know what's going through Bo's head right now but I know that if he sees us he'll realize we're here for him."

The sickening sound of the window being pushed even further open rang through both of their ears. It made them breathless just to hear it. Glancing up again, Hornet grasped the chainlinked fence between her fingers.

"We'll climb it then," she said, "we'll climb the fence and jump over to the other side." Prosper didn't need to be told twice. Gripping the wire, he placed his foot into one of the spacings in the fence and began to pull himself up.

* * *

A cool brieeze gently came through the open window and hugged Bo, wiping his gold locks out of his eyes. It made hims shiver, but he couldn't move away from the window. 

_Bo_, the wind sang softly, deviously.

"I don't really want to do this," Bo whispered to himself. Or was he talking to the wind? "Not that it's possible to talk to the wind," he found himself saying, "because only crazy people do that." Nonetheless, the wind responded.

_Do it,_ its wicked, breathy voice mocked, _you know you want to. Go ahead, fly out the window._

"But I want to see everyone again," whimpered Bo, "I want to go home once they get me out of here."

_Who's getting you out of here? Do you see anyone? And what home do you speak of? You're a homeless thief. You don't really belong anywhere. _

"Shut up," muttered Bo, although something told him that wouldn't be enough. It wasn't.

_You said it yourself; you're cold and hungry all the time. If you're not covered in filth you're drenched from the rain. And you're constantly tired; tired from being malnourished and sleeping on the floor, waking up every hour for fear of being caught. _

Bo bit his bottom lip, shivering. "I suppose that is irritating."

_Imagine a sleep where you'd never have to wake up. You'd never be hungry or sore or cold. You'd just be surrounded by your dreams, your friends, all the things you know could never come true in real life. _

"But I don't want to hurt everyone else. I saw how it effected everyone else when Mosca –"

_Ah, Moscaaaa,_ the wind hissed, cutting him off, _you miss him, don't you. But you'll see him on the other side of this window. You'll see how happy he is in your dreams. Everything, everyone is happier through the window. _

"I don't know," Bo said unsurely.

_Why not,_ the hypnotic voice responded, _Mosca did it, didn't he?_

Feeling dazed, Bo leaned forwards to push the window open further. The wind became colder as it hugged him tighter. The sound of his name startled him, almost waking him up. It sounded distant, but was sharper and more _real_ sounding. Looking into the dark though, he couldn't see anything.

_One jump and all the pain will go away,_ the wind whispered, _you know you want to._ And then, almost as if the wind had taken the form of a giant pair of hands, Bo found himself grabbing onto the sides of the window and pulling himself up onto the ledge.

* * *

"Ugh, he could be anywhere!" Riccio whined, "How are we supposed to find him if we can't just break into the orphanage?" 

"Keep your voice down," Speranza shushed, "and I do not care if I am outnumbered by thieves. As long as I am here, no one is breaking into any building."

Riccio rolled his eyes. "Well do you have some other plane you've yet to tell us yet?"

Speranza groaned. "Ooh, as soon as this night is over I am going to teach you some manners!" Riccio stuck his tongue out at the old woman while she glared back. When they turned away from each other though, they both smiled. They only acted like they weren't utterly fond of each other.

Talia walked a few feet ahead of the two she had arrived with, exhausted from their constant bickering. Her dark, narrow eyes scanned the property of the orphanage. Riccio had been right when he said they couldn't do much with out actually breaking into the orphanage. Upset with feeling so useless, Talia did a couple of jumps on the ground.

Then there was a low, creaking sound. It was so unexpected that it made Talia's blood turn icy. The sound had shut Speranza and Riccio up completely. Neither of them moved until the sound repeated itself.

"It's coming from up there," whispered Speranza as her old fingers pointed to the top floor.

Squinting in the dark, Talia suddenly saw what Speranza was pointing at. It was Bo, standing in the window. "Oh my God," whispered Talia. It was all she could say before she was choking on her words. No one was able to spit out any other sounds, and if they didn't do something to let Bo know they were there, they could lose.

Bo, Talia wanted to scream, shriek, yell, wave her arms, anything to get Bo's attention. But her body did the only thing it could think of doing. She started to run.

* * *

It's a strange feeling, falling. At first it feels sensational, almost like your flying in slow motion. Your stomach does flip flops and you let your arms fly up in the air. The wind laughs joyfully in your ears and you can't help but smile. 

This happened to Bo as he leapt from the window. Hehad never felt so light or free in his life. And then, just like that, the laughter from the wind turned into a horrific shriek as it watched Bo realize he was no longer flying. The smile on Bo's face fell and his expression became emotionless as he realized the bitter truth. He had been tricked.

The wind had lied about everything. Bo wasn't going to see Mosca. He wasn't going to see anyone ever again. There would be no dreams, only a dark and neverending sleep. But before all of that, there would be pain, brutal pain, the second his body hit the hard Earth and his bones shattered into a million pieces.

_I wonder if Mosca realized this as he fell_, Bo couldn't help but wonder, sorry that someone as smart as Mosca had let the sinister wind fool him. Then, closing his eyes, Bo prepared himself for the crash.

There was a thud, and then an "_Oof!", _but it didn't hurt nearly as much as Bo had thought it would. His head had smacked against something, only it didn't feeling like the ground. Opening his eyes, it took Bo a moment to realize there was a pair of arms around him, and that he was sitting on someone's stomach.

It was a girl. Her crazy brown hair was sprawled out on the ground. Her heavily eyelashed eyes were closed. Dried blood, that appeared to be from her scalp, covered part of her porcelain skin. It was Talia. And then Bo started to cry because he thought he had killd her from the fall. Even when Talia was able to sit up after a few minutes and hug Bo, he still cried.

After getting smacked in the head twice in one night, one from the cop and one from falling to the ground when catching Bo, it hurt Talia to cry, but she couldn't help it. "What were you doing?" she sobbed, angry and relieved at the same time, "What were you thinking, jumping like that? Why did you do it Bo? What were you doing?" She kept repeating herself because she was in too much shock and pain to think of anything else.

"I'm sorry," Bo cried in reply, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Talia. I'm so sorry."

It wasn't much of a response; in fact, it didn't answer any of Talia's questions. But it was all she needed to hear.


	14. Chapter 14

_Hey Talia, _

_It's me, Jillian, your best friend, just in case you forgot... Honestly, I don't know where you've disappeared to! It's been weeks since you've sent me a decent email. It's like you've fallen off the Earth or something and just decided to leave me…_

_Okay, so there was my small rant. Oh, but I'm not actually mad at you Talia. I swear I'm not! In fact, I guess it's kind of a good thing you haven't emailed me every day. It must mean that you're actually enjoying yourself. I hope this is true, but do you think that maybe you could squeeze in some time to email me? I miss hearing from you and I'm sure that by now you must have gotten yourself into some crazy adventure.__ And what about those thieves you still haven't even told me about? Were you actually serious or were you just pulling my leg? Probabl, __LOL!_

_I miss you loads girl. I'm counting the days until you return home… only eight more sleeps before you'll be landing in the airport! I can't wait to see you again._

_Love you loads,_

_Jillian_

_---_

_Hey darling,_

_I know; no news is probably good news. I'm sure you're having a blast in Venice, just like your father and I knew you were. _

_Even so, it would be nice to hear from you every once and a while. We miss you sweetie, and I know we were the ones who put you up to this, but at least tell us that you're okay. Your father says that whenever he talks to you on the phone you always sound tense. Is everything alright?_

_XO_

_MOM_

_---_

_Talia…_

_It's me again. Just thought I would remind you to send me an email because you promised you would. Or maybe call me. I swear I'll talk to you; I don't even care if I have to pay for the phone bill._

_I miss you_

_Jillian_

_---_

_HELLO???_

_Are you deliberately ignoring me? What did I do to deserve this torture!_

_But seriously Talia, are you okay? I mean you're not hurt or anything right? Just send me one email saying you're okay so I can relax. __Who's supposed to look after you in Venice since me, the cautious nervous freak isn't there? _

_And I'm actually serious. I'm kind of scared that I haven't heard from you. Please __send me your word that you're safe. _

_Ily_

_Jillian_

_---_

_Talia,_

_May I please ask what is going on? Your attitude towards me when you last spoke to me on the phone was completely unnecessary and very immature of you._

_Maybe your mother and I were wrong to send you to Venice by yourself. I mean we worked very hard to plan this trip but whenever I speak to you, you just sound miserable, not to mention that you have been ignoring the emails your mother as sent you._

_As soon as you get this email me right back with an explanation on where you have been and why you have been acting so unfairly by not communicating with you family. _

_Dad_

_---_

_Okay Talia,_

_I'm sorry. Maybe my email was a little harsh. We just miss you, is all. I'm not angry with you anymore Talia. In fact, I never truly was._

_Just please email us so we know that everything is going okay. _

_Love,_

_Dad_

_---_

_Hi…_

_Have I even been emailing the right account, or have I just been emailing some stranger?_

_If you are some random I don't know, sorry for filling up your inbox…_

_Jillian_

_---_

Rubbing her eyes with her hands, Talia let out a small groan as she close the last email that had filled up her inbox. She knew she had some explaining to do, but she wasn't in the mood to write out everything she had been through. The only reason why she was at the internet café was because Speranza had made her go.

"Your father has called every day, asking where you have been," she had snapped at Talia, "no go! Go before the phone rings again and I get yelled at by my own son!"

Sighing, Talia placed her fingers on the greasy keyboard, and with a tiny smirk, started typing her email.

_Dear Mom, Dad and Jillian,_

_I'm sorry I haven't spoken to any of you for some time now. I'm also sorry to say that this email will be fairly pathetic in explaining what I've been up to, but I think it would only make sense if I told you what's been going on in person. _

_Please don't be angry. In fact, you should look forward for when I return home and get to tell you my story. It is completely true and involves a group of thieves, practically living on the streets and the police. Don't worry though, I wasn't taken to jail. _

_Jillian, I'm sorry for not keeping in touch with you like I had promised. Mom and Dad, I'm sorry if you were upset/angry with my attitude. I have actually loved my whole time in Venice. _

_See you in five days. _

_xo_

_Talia_

_---_

A/N – Wow, I'm almost done. Next chapter is the end of this story. Thanks so much for all who kept on reading. You and your reviews are the reason why I kept on going with _This Place is Prison_. It's been fun writing, and don't worry, I'll be back. xo


	15. Chapter 15

It was around noon when Talia returned from the internet café. Her head still throbbed with each step, but things weren't nearly as blurry as they had been the night before.

After she had clumsily caught Bo, things felt like a dream and didn't make much sense. She and Bo just stay huddled together, crying, when Prosper and Hornet came out of nowhere. Prosper had been yelling at them but Talia hadn't been able to make out what he was saying (Hornet assured her later that he just been yelling out in relief and appologies and thanking Talia for everything). Then Speranza had swooped in and picked Bo up off of Talia while barking orders to everyone around her. Prosper and Hornet helped to pick Talia up and had swung Talia's arms over their shoulders to help her walk. The only thing Talia could remember about that was feeling embarrassed because she was taller than both Prosper and Hornet, so it was awkward walking. They all went back to Speranza's place where she gave each of them a room with a bed. Everyone passed out in seconds.

Kicking her sneakers off as she walked back into her grandma's house, Talia was greeted by Hornet. "How's your head?" she asked Talia, referring how Speranza had diagnosed Talia with a minor concussion that morning.

"Oh," responded Talia, "it's getting there. But it still hurts after getting smacked in the head twice in one night."

Hornet nodded and the two girls stood awkwardly in the front hallway. Talia glanced over Hornet. She had had a shower, something Talia _still_ had yet to do. Wearing Talia's old, purple sweater, just washed, Hornet looked the same, yet different somehow. Maybe it was because Talia could see the freckles on her face now that it wasn't dirty. Maybe it was because her face looked more relaxed after having a comfortable sleep. Or maybe it was because her big brown eyes were shining after eating a proper meal. The one thing that was still the same about Hornet though was her hair, which was still tied back into a long braid.

"We had a talk while you were out," Hornet said at last, "the gang, I mean."

"What about?" asked Talia.

"Oh, you know, just about last night.Riccio explained where he had gone while Prosper and I had gone to the orphanage. Bo explained what was going through his head when he jumped from the window." She paused, choosing her words carefully, "But also, Prosper and I were talking about a mistake we had made, blaming you for the capturing of Bo. I just wanted to appologize about that."

"Forget about it-" Talia began but was quickly cut off.

"I'm serious though. I mean it was totally wrong on our part. I don't know what made us assume that you weren't trying to protect Bo. We were just really freaked out because of… Well, Riccio said he told you about Mosca." Hornet's eyes widen and glossed over just by saying Mosca's name. "I don't know what we would have done if Bo had… if you hadn't been there. Especially Prosper, since they were just starting to get close again. So thanks Talia. When you, for whatever reason, wanted to stick with us, you probably saved everything between the gang."

Talia grinned. Usually she hated it when people flooded her with thanks and admiration. She always found it very over the top and slightly fake. But Hornet's words were anything but fake. This girl, who had been through traumatizing events and yet still acted like a mother to those boys when needed, was probably one of the most genuine and amazing people Talia had ever met.

"UGH! I HATE YOU!" came the suddenly yell from the kitchen. Talia frowned in confusion while Hornet let out a disappointed sigh.

"What are they up to now?" she askd softly as she made her way to the kitchen where the yelling continued. Talia followed, nervous for the argument she was about to get into.

"THIS IS SO UNFAIR! I HATE YOU! YOU MUST HAVE BEEN CHEATING!"

_Cheating?_ As the girls turned into the kitchen, they came across the sight of Prosper, Bo, Riccio and Speranza sitting around the table. Each of them were holding a bundle of playing cards in their hands. Bo and Prosper were laughing silently and Speranza was wearing her infamous smirk. Noticing the girls in the doorway, she chuckled.

"I'm showing the boys how to play Go Fish," she explained, "and Riccio is showing me what a sore loser he is."

"I'm not a sore loser!" cried Riccio, a grin spreading across his glowing face. He then burried his laughter into his pride and glory, the toy cat. He had ventured back to their old home to find it laying belly up on the ground. He had kept it with him ever since to make sure he wouldn't lose it again.

Talia had never felt so relieved in her life. The gang never looked so relaxed and happy since she had met them. They were clean and wearing fresh clothes, although their tiny structures still drowned in them.

"Did you email your parents?" Speranza asked Talia, sitting up and clasping her hands on the table.

"Yeah…" Talia said unsurely, knowing that her short email still didn't explain what she'd been up to. Speranza nodded in approval anyways. Then, clearing her throat, the old woman's expression became slightly serious. The laughter died down slightly as everyone realized what topic she was about to bring up.

"Well, now that we're all here," began Speranza, speaking slowly, "I think it's time we all had a talk. It's amazing to think that since our adventure last night to washing clothes and playing cards with you this afternoon I already feel a close bond between all of us… even if you are thieves. And even if I absolutly hated you, I would be disappointed with myself to send you back on the streets or even an orphanage since I have seen how it clearly affects you all."

Talia walked up behind Bo and clasped her hands around Bo's hair tightly to support herself. The air felt tense, making it hard to breath. Her head was throbbing and she felt slightly dizzy with anxiety.

"Look," Speranza said, "I want you to all stay with me. I really, truly do, but I don't know if it's possiable. I mean I am an old woman. I don't remember how to take care of kids. I don't know what you like or what you want to wear. Money may be tight as I am obviously retired… I just don't know if I am the best option for all of you. Now I'm sure we could find some families who want children –"

"But won't we be separated?" Hornet burst, eyes buldging, "What are the chances of a family wanting welcome four thieves into their lives?"

"You can still see each other," Speranza tried but was quickly shot down.

"But the four of us are a family," Prosper defended, "actually the five of us, but Talia already had a home. Anyways, you can't split up a family. It's just not fair!"

"I know sweetie," said Speranza softly, sadly.

Riccio removed the toy from his face. "So no one in all of Venice wants to take in four kids?"

"We stop being thieves if that's what we have to do," Bo tried, "Honest, we've done it before. We'll tell them we're ex-thieves. We don't even have to say we were thieves at all!"

Just like that, the gang's glowing faces, their shining eyes, dimmed. The excitement and hope from them had evapourated in a mere few seconds. Talia cringed as she looked at everyone's crestfallen expressions.

"I don't get it," Talia found herself saying, almost as if her mouth had a mind of its own, "Speranza, why is it so hard to take in these four kids? You said you don't remember how to raise kids, well that's no excuse. You raised my dad fine and you were able to calm Riccio and me down when we arrived here last night."

"And we don't need much," Prosper added, "You said you worried about what to get us and what we want to wear? Our answer is anything. We've grown up differently. We don't care about things like that. And if things get tough, hey, we've lived on the streets. I'm sure we can handle it."

"Speranza, what are you worried about?" Talia asked loudly, "You came up with the idea for me to come and experience Venice and it worked. I mean you're crazy! But you're also probably one of the most interesting people I've met, even if I only learned you could speak English twelve hours ago."

"But I'm old," Speranza pointed out, "who knows how long I'm going to last. What then?"

"They'll come and live with me," Talia said, quick as a whip, "I don't care what my parents say. If you welcome the gang into your home I'm sure my parents can do the same. But until then I'll just have to come and visit Venice as often as possiable so I can see my family again."

Speranza sighed. Pushing her hair out from under her, she through her hands up in the air. "Alright!" she cried, "Alright! Welcome to your new home. But I better not hear any complaining out of any of you, you hear me? Don't make me regret this…"

No one was listening to her though. The gang was all cheering and hugging each other. Speranza only pretended it irritated her. If anyone had seen her turn her back to them, they would have seen a large smile fold out onto her creased face.

"Should I make lunch?" Speranza asked.

"YES!" everyone cried. They were glowing again, dancing around in circles and embracing each other. "Group hug!" Riccio yelled as they all smushd into each other, giggling.

As they did, Talia realized she had only five more days until she was meant to return home. _Five days,_ she thought sadly, _I better make the best of it_, although it already seemed like she was off to a good start. Glancing outside the window, Talia's grinned widened even more when she realized it finally stopped raining. The sky was back to its normal, bright blue color, and that had to be a good sign.

The End

_x0_

_Vintage88_


End file.
